A fresh start
by Assassin's Creed Master
Summary: Lee Everett begins a new life in a new neighborhood after filing for divorce with his ex-wife. Now in a new neighborhood, Lee is certain that he can settle into this nice quiet neighborhood. No crazy ex-wife, no bad neighbors, and most importantly, no walkers. (written with A Writer With Mixed Interests).
1. Chapter 1: just another morning

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 1: just another morning**

**Greetings to the many authors and readers reading this. I am back with another Walking Dead Game story, but this time it's going to be different. We're going to be doing a story where life is normal and walkers don't exist. **

**I can't take full credit for this one, this was written with author A Writer With Mixed Interests.**

**Anyway, I've always wanted to do a story like this. I have seen similar stories, but most of them were really short and the authors just decided not to bother finishing them. I, however, will not do that.**

**I'm speaking too much again, aren't I? Here's chapter 1, enjoy reading and be sure to leave us some feedback.**

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><p>Today could not be a better day to be outside. The weather was perfect, people were happy, and everything was peaceful. Lee Everett, a man in his late thirties woke up to a beautiful morning and stepped outside his house and inhaled a fresh of breath air. Recently, Lee had moved into this house around a month ago after he caught his wife cheating on him with a state senator. They broke up and Lee came here for a fresh start.<p>

Next door to him were Ed and Diana, who were a nice married couple and their daughter Clementine, a nice young eleven-year-old girl. And over the road was his best friend Kenny with his family. His wife Katjaa and their son Kenny Junior, but they called him Duck instead. It was Saturday morning and he did not have work today. What would he do to enjoy his weekend?

It was early summer, the time of year where the temperature was nice right before it got insanely hot. It was too nice of a day to stay inside, so Lee decided to go for a walk for now. Getting some fresh air was always nice.

He was about to turn and leave his house when he noticed Clementine getting some mail out from her family's mailbox. She noticed him and gave him a smile and a wave. Lee decided to walk over and greet her. "Hey, Clem, how are you? Glad to be off of school soon?"

"Yeah, my exams were pretty tough." Clementine admitted as she scrolled through the mail, only to see there was no letters for her and just for her parents. "I gave it my best. I get my results soon."

"Good to hear," Lee told her. "I'm sure you did well, though. You're a smart girl."

"Thanks Lee. I wonder if you'll still working at the university when I finish school and college one day." Clementine replied with a smile across her face. She adjusted her hat for a moment that was given to her by her father and she cherished it closely. She was rarely seen without it.

"I don't plan on leaving anytime soon, so there's a possibility," Lee responded, returning a smile. "Well, I'll let you go, Clementine. I'll see you around, okay?"

"Okay. Bye Lee." Clementine bade him goodbye as she turned away and proceeded back towards her house, her mail in one hand.

Lee placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and continued to walk. He took advantage of the time he now had to think. About his career, his loved ones, or just life in general. It was nice.

He turned the block and passed some houses that held some more people he knew, such as Carley, Omid and his girlfriend Christa, best friends Luke and Nick, Mark, Alvin and Rebecca, and Carlos, his wife Astrid and his daughter Sarah.

All of them were nice people, except for a couple of faults with some of them. Nick had a bit of a temper, but he wasn't that bad. Carlos was quite protective over his daughter despite her age. And Rebecca and Alvin had a couple of financial issues because of their recent baby, but they were okay for now.

As Lee walked past the houses, a door opened and came out Carley, dressed in a purple jacket and blue jeans. She picked up her paper and was about to head back inside, but she stopped when she save her neighbor. "Morning Lee."

"Hey. Nice day out, huh?" Lee commented.

"Yep, pretty great." Carley agreed as she went back into her house, but she held the door open. "You up for a coffee?"

"Sure," Lee nodded, and followed Carley into her house. Although Carley wasn't exactly the tidiest person Lee knew, she still managed to keep a nice house.

The two walked into the kitchen, where Carley started a pot of coffee.

"So, got anything planned today?" Carley inquired whilst she grabbed two mugs and set them down onto her kitchen counter. Lee took a seat by the coffee table.

"Not sure, it's too nice a day to be cooped up inside," Lee noted. "I know I'll be grading finals pretty soon. Lots of fun..." He gave a small, sarcastic smile.

"I know the feeling." Carley agreed as she picked up the coffee kettle and poured it into the two cups. "I spent a while working on a report yesterday that has to be done by today. My boss can be a bit of a bitch at times, but I think I can cope."

"Hope that goes well," Lee said as Carley handed him one of the mugs of coffee. He took a small enough sip to where it wouldn't burn his mouth before placing it on the coffee table.

"Since I got that report out the way, I think I'm just going to stay in for a while. I'm too exhausted to go out. " Carley stated as she too took a sip out of her coffee. "Nothing better to do anyway. Kenny told me he was taking his family and their dog out for a walk today, Mark's busy mowing his lawn and Doug is at work. Who works on Saturday?"

"Hardly anyone I know, other than my parents," Lee joked. It was true that his parents and brother, Blake, were likely running their pharmacy in Macon, just as they did every day.

"They're good people, Lee." Carley smiled as she took another sip of coffee. She only met Lee's parents once and that was when Lee organized a trip to Macon with half of the neighborhood. It was fun.

"Yeah," Lee agreed, playing with the buttons on his shirt a little awkwardly. "I may have to give them a call today, now that we mention it." He picked up his mug and took another sip of coffee.

Before long, Lee finished his coffee and decided to enjoy the rest of the day. He bid Carley goodbye and left her house, thanking her for the coffee. Now Carley was left alone, but she mentioned she was going to clean up her house a little.

Lee continued on down the street. What to do...?

Lee shifted his attention across the road and smiled when he saw his best friend Kenny with his son Duck and their dog Sam.

Duck tugged on his father's shirt and pointed excitedly at Lee, jumping up and down. Lee chuckled; Duck was a good kid, even though Kenny described him as "dumb as a bag of hammers."

"Dad, it's Lee!" Duck enthusiastically called out. He waved at Lee with a beaming smile.

Lee waved back, as Duck ran over to greet him. Kenny wasn't far behind as he gripped the dog's leash.

"Hey, guys," Lee greeted as he pet Sam. Sam licked his hand in response.

"Hey," Kenny nodded. He looked around for a moment. "Just a warning, Lilly's in one of those tyrants again."

That was no surprise. Lilly had a real temper and her father Larry was twice as worse. They were fortunate not to live next to them, but they felt sorry for Mark and Ben and his family who lived next door to them on both sides.

"What happened now?" Lee wanted to know. It seemed as though Lilly and/or Larry was out to take their rage out on practically the entire neighborhood at least once every other week.

"Something about her tires gettin' slashed?" Kenny shrugged. "I dunno. But she was accusing Ben and what's-his-face of doing it."

"Why's Lilly always mean, Dad?" Duck inquired. He had to admit he wasn't the biggest Lilly fan but that did not mean he hated her.

"She just gets worked up too easily, son, don't worry about her," Kenny told him.

Lee raised a curious eyebrow at that one. Even Kenny had his moments of "getting worked up," but decided not to comment on it and turned to Duck. "So Duck, what are you and your dad gonna do today?"

"We're going to the park!" Duck announced in a happy tone. Lee only just noticed Duck had a frisbee in his hand. Either going to play catch with his father, throw it for Sam to catch or maybe both.

"Sounds like fun," Lee commented. He turned to Kenny. "How's Katjaa doing, Ken?"

"She's doing fine. We may be goin' up to visit her sister in Memphis in a couple of weeks," Kenny replied. "You and I ought to get a beer or something before then, Lee."

"Yeah, we should," Lee agreed. He wasn't really much of a drinker, but sometimes it was nice.

With that, Lee allowed Kenny and Duck to enjoy their day out while Lee continued to walk around the neighborhood.

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><p><strong>And that's chapter 1 completed, folks. This was a little short of an introduction of what is to come, but there will be a lot more coming soon. Anyway, I won't talk too much as I won't take up your time. Hope you enjoyed and if so, be sure to add this story to your alerts.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: BBQ at Clementine's

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 2: BBQ at Clementine's**

**Hey everyone, Assassin here. Uh, thanks for the little feedback so far. This chapter was not suppose to be out until tomorrow, but just for you guys and gals, I released it today. Enjoy reading, ya'll and don't be afraid to hit that review button.**

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><p>Eventually, Lee decided to head to the park and read a book about history that he had with him. He sat underneath a shady tree, allowing the nice breeze to flow through. He could hear the sounds of children playing nearby and some leaves falling nearby.<p>

In the distance he could see Kenny and Duck playing catch together with Sam. It was nice to see them enjoying themselves. Kenny was a good father.

Lee decided not to bother them and continued reading his book. But he leaned up at one point when he saw a familiar boy teenager riding his bike.

His name was Ben, and he was an upcoming senior at the nearby high school, Stone Mountain. When he passed Lee, he gave him a wave.

"Hey, Mr. Everett." he greeted as he went past. He almost lost balance because he let go of one handle but he regained control.

Lee watched Ben ride past him for a couple of moments before he continued reading his book.

An hour or so had passed since Lee was in the park and he noticed it was past noon. He was feeling a little hungry and there was a store nearby.

He put his book away and glanced back at Kenny and Duck, who were still going strong in their game of catch with Sam, and walked away. It was only a few minutes' walk towards the store. It seemed like Lee was seeing everyone he knew today, because now he noticed Luke and Nick humorously arguing over something with Nick's uncle Pete.

"Will you guys knock it off?" Pete told them. He sighed and placed his hands to his hips. "You're both acting like kids."

Lee laughed quietly to himself as he went to pick out something to eat, eventually settling on a hoagie and a bag of chips.

He approached the counter to pay for his things and was met by the same shopkeeper again as usual. A young woman named Jane who Luke had a crush on.

"Hey, Lee.' Jane greeted as she scanned his items. "What brings you to the "best" store in the world?"

"Just getting some food," Lee shrugged. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Luke and Nick whispering to each other outside, Nick likely trying to get Luke to take to Jane.

"Uh-Hu." Jane nodded. "That's 3.56 please."

Lee paid for his food and bid Jane good-bye. He didn't want to bother Nick, Luke, and Pete.

He didn't know what to do for now but surely they're had to be something to do except for grading papers. He then began to think, the Cherry Blossom Festival was coming up in Macon soon. Maybe he could organize another trip if people weren't busy? It was summer and school was almost out, so it was a possibility.

When Lee settled into the neighborhood and made friends fast, he took a Clementine, Ed, Diana, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Carley, Omid and Christa to Macon. Perhaps he could do it again, but this time, invite more people.

Maybe he should ask his parents first. He decided to give them a call.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number for Everett's Pharmacy. After two rings, his mother, Katharine, picked up.

_"Everett's Pharmacy, may I help you?_" Mrs. Everett's voice rang out.

"Hey, Mom," Lee greeted.

_"Lee!"_ Mrs. Everett cried. _"You should call more often. How are you, hon?"_

The voice of Lee's father, John, could be heard in the background, something about talking on a cell phone instead of the store phone. The store phone hanged up bit a moment later, his phone rang and he answered. This time it was his father.

_"Hey, son!"_ John greeted.

"Hey, Dad," Lee let out a small laugh at getting hung up on. It happened pretty often, and he was used to it now. "How are you and Mom? How's Blake?"

_"We're all good."_ John answered. _"Business is going great too, and with the festival on the way, things are going great."_

"I kind of wanted to talk to you about that," Lee told him. "You remember last November when I invited the people in my neighborhood over to Macon?"

_"Yeah, I remember."_ John replied. _"It was fun. There was the girl with the hat and her parents, Clementine, right? The women with the brown hair, the redneck guy and his family, the short guy with his girlfriend. My memory ain't as great."_

"Right," Lee agreed. "Well, I was thinking I could do it again, maybe go to the Cherry Blossom Festival this time. I think Clem would like it, she once told me that she's always wanted to go."

_"Oh, of COURSE!"_ Katharine replied excitedly. She had thoroughly enjoyed the last time, and was very willing to do it again. _"What do you think, John?"_

_"Sounds like a good idea to me."_ John agreed as he took the phone back. _"Bring the folks you brought last time. Hell, bring more if you like."_

"Will do," Lee noted. "I'll let you guys get back to work. Say hi to Blake for me?"

_"We will, Lee,"_ his mother replied. _"We love you."_

"I love you too, bye." Lee hung up.

With that said and done, the trip was organized but first he had to let his friends know. He would have to ask them when he got the chance.

For right now, Lee decided to head home and grade some of his students' papers before giving anyone a call. He was pretty well-known in the neighborhood, especially after the first trip to Macon, and knew nearly everyone's numbers.

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><p>The afternoon was quiet. After grading almost all of those papers, he decided to watch TV. But before long the doorbell rang and he went to answer it.<p>

Lee swung open the door, and who else stood on the other side but Clementine. He looked down and smiled. "Hey, Clem."

"Hey Lee." Clementine greeted. "My parents are having a barbeque and they asked if you wanted to come? Omid and Christa are already there."

Lee thought about it for a moment. "Sure, why not? Let me get ready and I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"

Clementine nodded and ran back to her House to let her parents know they had another guest.

Now that Lee had plans, he fixed himself up briefly. He noticed an unopened bottle of wine nearby and decided to take it with him for the adults. He walked out of his house and knocked on the door to Clem's house.

"Come in!" Clementine's mother, Diana, called.

Lee entered the house and made his way into backyard. Ed was there cooking meat, Clementine and Diana were setting plates down, and Omid and Christa were talking.

"Hey, girls, need some help?" Lee offered.

"Would be nice." Clementine agreed.

"Good to see you, Lee." Ed greeted as he dropped down some steak.

Lee nodded and smiled lightly. "You too, Ed."

"Lee, if you don't mind, there's a bowl of salad sitting on the table that still needs to be tossed." Diana pointed with a fork.

"Sure," Lee responded, and went over to the table where Omid and Christa were talking. They noticed him as he began to toss the salad with the wooden fork and spoon.

"Hey dude." Omid greeted, taking a sip out of a glass of wine.

"Hey," Christa added.

"Hey guys," Lee nodded. "What's new?"

"Whiskers drank some whiskey." Omid spoke up. Whiskers were the cat he and Christa owned.

"Because SOMEBODY ended up putting it too close to the edge and knocking it down!" Christa scolded, but she was smiling. Seeing a wasted cat was probably a funny sight.

"Hey, it looks perfectly safe to me." Omid shrugged like it was nothing. It was almost as bad as when he accidentally ran someone down in his car.

Lee chuckled in response but he decided to go and hand Diana that wine he still had in his hand.

"Here, I thought you and Ed might like this, for a special occasion," Lee offered the bottle to Diana, who took it.

"Thank you, Lee, that's very nice of you," Diana gave Lee a smile. She went to place it in the refrigerator and went to stand near her husband. By now, Clementine was sitting at the table across from Omid and Christa, laughing as Omid told her the story of Whiskers getting drunk on whiskey.

"I didn't think animals could get drunk." Clementine said in between laughs, but she tried her best to calm down before she laughed too hard.

"Neither did we." Omid chuckled. "He was still asleep when me and Christa when we left the house. I'm sure he'll sleep it off."

Christa squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to be angry and not laugh, but it wasn't working.

"You can't hide that smile from me." Omid teased as he tried to remove her hand away from her nose in a playful way.

"Let it out, Christa." Clementine encouraged with a grin.

Unable to hold in her laughter, Christa placed her arm onto the table and set her head down, quietly laughing to herself.

Lee smirked, only Omid's teasing could be fun and contagious. He decided to talk about the Cherry Blossom Festival once dinner was served so that everyone could hear.

"So, Diana, did you invite others or just us?" Omid inquired just as Christa finally controlled herself and stopped laughing.

"I think Kenny and his family may show up," Diana responded. "But that's about it. One day I'd love to have the whole neighborhood show up. Summer's coming, so perhaps we could do that when the pool is uncovered."

"Speaking of the whole neighborhood, I'd like to share something when dinner's ready, if that's all right," said Lee.

"Of course." Ed replied from where he was standing and cooking the food.

"It would be nice to have the whole neighborhood here." Omid agreed as he took another sip of wine. "Well, not too sure about that Lilly and her dad. Those two are like the Grinch and his daughter."

"Well...let's just be glad that Larry doesn't go out much now that he's retired," Lee commented.

"Amen to that." Omid agreed with his wine raised into the air. "I still like this neighborhood; it's a nice quiet place. Christa and I were glad to move here from Florida."

"I always liked this place." Clementine spoke up after she took a sip of milk. "I like most of the neighbors. Carley, there's Doug, there's Mark, there's Carlos and his wife Astrid and their daughter Sarah. I can't remember the others."

"There are Luck, Nick, and Pete, and Alvin and Rebecca, although I don't know them too well," Lee reminded her. "Nick has a bit of a temper, but they're all good people."

"Well, you know what they say: you only got one chance at first impressions." Omid replied.

Before long, dinner was served and everyone sat around the table outside. They were served with a variety of meat like stakes, burgers, and chicken wings. So far, no-one else had showed up yet, but that could change.

"Wow, this all looks delicious, Diana." Omid complemented, his mouth practically on the verge of drooling, but he decided to have manners and wait until their hosts gave the word.

Just as everyone was ready to serve themselves. Ed went and answered the door, and Lee didn't have to ask who it was when they heard Duck's excited voice. Ed laughed and invited Kenny and his family inside.

"Just in time, Kenny, dinner's ready." Ed told him as he escorted them through his home towards the back yard. "Hey, guys, Kenny, Katjaa and Duck are here."

"Hey, Kenny." Clementine was the first to greet him with a small smile and a wave from where she was seated.

"Hey Clem, hey everybody," Kenny greeted, as Duck happily ran over to his friend. Duck and Clementine didn't play together that often, yet they were still good friends.

"Have a seat," Diana offered.

Kenny, Katjaa and Duck all took a seat down on the table at perfect timing when Ed set down three huge plats, one with burgers, one with stakes, and one with chicken wings. And with them were small sauces, cheese and salad.

"Well, everyone dig in." Ed announced as he took a seat down next to his wife.

"Oh, boy, this looks good." Omid said as he grabbed himself a burger and some cheese.

All of the adults had wine, while Duck and Clementine drank milk. Everyone was able to serve themselves, and they all began to chat while they were eating (luckily, Duck was using a fork without being told).

"How's the fishing going, Kenny?" Ed kindly inquired whilst he put some sauce on his chicken wings.

"Goin' pretty well, actually," Kenny answered as he put some salad on his plate. "It'll be better once the season comes, summer means higher pay." Here he beamed, and Katjaa chuckled.

"Sounds like a lucky break." Ed replied. "I still got some work to do at the workshop, but because it's summer, I won't have to be as busy as I would be." he looked around for the bread until he realized it was out of his reach. "Clem, can you pass me the bread please?"

"Sure." Clementine replied, passing the bread over to Diana who proceeded to pass it to Ed.

"Thanks honey." Ed thanked.

"Lee, you said you wanted to tell us something?" Christa asked as she buttered her own piece of bread.

"Oh, yeah," Lee responded. When he said that, everyone turned to him to see what he wanted to say. "You all remember how we all went to Macon back in November?"

"Wasn't that when Omid tripped over into a puddle?" Clementine replied with a slight chuckle as she thought back to the memory. That was without a doubt one of the funniest moments in her life.

"Hey, it's not my fault." Omid protested.

There was a good laugh from everyone (eventually including Omid) at the table. It took about twenty seconds for that to die down, and when it finally did; Lee cleared his throat and continued.

"I was thinking we could maybe do that again, there's a Cherry Blossom festival going on in about two weeks. Maybe this time we could invite more people. Like Luke and Nick, and Carlos and his family. What do you say?"

"That sounds like fun to me. I don't mind going." Ed answered, but he turned towards his wife and daughter to hear their opinion on it. "Clem, Diana, what do you think?"

"It sounds fun. I'll go." Clementine agreed. "I like Macon, it's a nice town."

"I think I can get a day or two off from the hospital, so why not?" Diana replied. "It would be nice to get out of Atlanta."

"Katjaa, Kenny, what about you guys?" Lee turned to his best friend and his wife.

"I wanna go!" Duck exclaimed, turning towards both of his parents to hear their say in the matter. "Can we go? Please..."

Kenny snickered at his son's enthusiasm. "I reckon we can go," he replied. "What do you say, Kat?"

"Diana's right, it would be night to leave Atlanta," Katjaa nodded. "I guess we can postpone visiting my sister until a while after."

Lee smiled lightly. "So, I guess everyone here wants to go?"

"I'm down with it." Omid agreed in a somewhat excited tone.

Christa did not say anything, but she did nod her head in agreement.

"Don't fall into another puddle," Kenny teased Omid as he raised his wine glass.

"Ha-ha, you're funny." Omid sarcastically replied, but he would keep that in mind to avoid another accident.

At that moment, Ed decided to propose a toast, holding up his own wine glass.

"I'd like to make a toast." Ed announced, standing up as all eyes met him. "I'd just like to say that I am grateful for the life we have here. I am grateful to be married to my beautiful wife, I am grateful to have my beautiful daughter, and lastly, I am grateful to live a great life in this country with great friends. Here's a toast, to the neighborhood!"

"To the neighborhood!" everyone cheered as they all clinked their wine glasses (or milk in the kids' cases).

Duck was the one to mainly take up the rest of the conversation at dinner, when he began telling some story about "super dinosaur" or something of the like, Lee couldn't understand much. Whether the rest of the group was trying to tune him out or just listening so that his feelings wouldn't be hurt, he couldn't tell.

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><p>After a little while had passed, dinner was over and everyone was stuffed. Their day at Ed and Diana's house was over and one by one, everyone thanked and bade them goodbye. Lee was the last one to leave. He bid them goodbye and proceeded to head next door back to his home.<p>

Now was when he decided to begin grading his papers. He was pretty glad that next week was the final week of classes until the summer semester, which didn't start until July.

As Lee continued grading his papers in his living room, he looked out of the window and smiled when he saw a happy family. It was Carlos with his wife Astrid and their daughter Sarah walked past his home, and by the looks of their faces, they were happy.

"Maybe they'd like to go," Lee said to no one in particular. He liked Carlos and his family but never got the chance to interact with them very much. "I'll give them a call tomorrow."

Lee knew Carlos was a doctor and Astrid was a teacher. He too was a teacher and that was something he and Astrid could relate to. And Diana was a doctor too so maybe she and Carlos would relate.

Well, they wouldn't know until they met. He'd be sure to invite them tomorrow. And maybe a couple more of the neighbors like Luke, Nick, Pete, Alvin and Rebecca.

Lee was now extremely looking forward to this trip, especially if most if not everybody could come. His parents, Katharine especially, loved to meet new people (which were part of the reason why they started their family drugstore).

It would take a couple of weeks, but that time would soon slip by. But in that time, he would organization a couple of things like where everyone would stay and when they needed to go.

For now, Lee decided to grade half of his papers tonight and save the rest for tomorrow. Albeit tomorrow was another day off, it was never as great as a Saturday.

Soon, night had taken over the sky and it was time for bed. Lee made himself a snack before heading to bed for the night. Tomorrow would be a new day.

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><p><strong>And that brings us to the end of chapter 2, folks. Lee has enjoyed a BBQ with his friends and now he is organizing a trip to Macon. Almost (if not all) all of the characters from season 1 and 2 will be included with a couple of ocs like Carlos' wife and Nick's mother. Anyway, stay tuned for chapter 3 that will be here on Sunday.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3: organizing a trip

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 3: organizing a trip  
><strong>

**Hey everyone, we're back and here we bring you chapter 3. It's Sunday, everybody's third favorite day of the week and what better to enjoy your Sunday than a chapter from your good-old friends Assassin's Creed Master and A Writer With Mixed Interests.**

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><p>Lee woke up at around eight-thirty the next morning, wondering what would happen today. He would let his parents know of the full situation later on. He decided to wait a short time to begin calling around in case some people were still asleep.<p>

The first thing Lee did to start his day was breakfast. He got some eggs and bacon and began to cook himself something to eat. He wasn't the best chef in the world, but he managed.

He decided to eat in the living room so he could see what was on TV. Sunday mornings weren't usually the best time to watch TV since there was nothing on, so Lee settled on some random documentary on World War 1.

Before long, his phone began to ring and he answered it.

_"Hey Lee. It's Blake."_

"Hey, man, good to hear from you," Lee smiled. "What's up?"

_"Everything's good."_ Blake answered on the other end of the line. _"Mom and Dad wanted to know how many people are coming exactly. That's if you already sorted it out."_

"I still have to make the calls, I was going to get back to them on that," Lee responded.

_"Okay. Give us a call when you do though."_ Blake replied. In the background, Lee heard the doorbell ring. _"All right, I better get back to work. See you later, Lee."_

"Later, Blake," Lee bade his brother good-bye and hung up. He finished his breakfast and placed his dishes in the dishwasher. There was a list of his friends' phone numbers on the refrigerator. Lee looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly ten in the morning. He debated on whether to call someone now, and who to call first.

He decided to give Carley a call since she usually got up early.

He sat down in his leather armchair and took out his cell phone, dialing Carley's number. After three rings, the younger woman picked up.

_"Hello?"_ Carley greeted on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Car, it's Lee." Lee greeted.

_"Oh hey Lee."_ Carley greeted when she realized it was her neighbor. _"What's up?"_

Lee decided to cut right to the chase. "I wanted to ask you something," he said. "You remember when we went to Macon last time? I was thinking we could do it again, but with some more people."

_"That sounds like fun."_ Carley replied. She was owed some time off anyway. _"Who else is coming?"_

"So far, Clementine and her parents are coming, along with Kenny and his family, and Omid and Christa," Lee listed. "I was thinking of inviting some more people and go on this trip once school gets out. What do you think?"

_"Sounds like a plan."_ Carley agreed. _"But please don't invite Nate. I hate that guy."_

Lee had never met Nate, but he knew that he was an annoying neighbor who lived nowhere near they did. And thank the Lord for that.

"Don't worry, I won't. He would ruin everything." Lee reassured.

_"Okay. Give me a call when you make the dates."_ Carley replied, a sigh of relief followed by. _"Bye Lee."_

"Bye." Lee bid her goodbye.

The two hung up. Lee went back over to the fridge and looked at the list of contacts. "Who to call next?" he asked himself. He decided to go and meet Carlos but he didn't have his number yet. Maybe he could go to his house and finally greet him and his family properly.

Lee knew that they lived in one of the nicer homes down the block. After waiting a few minutes, he got himself ready for the day and headed out.

It did not take him long to walk to their home. On the way there, he noticed his neighbor Bonnie and gave her a wave to which she returned.

Bonnie was a gardener, and you could tell this was so because of all of the flowers and plants in her front yard. The redheaded woman picked up her watering can, and Lee went to knock on Hidalgo family's door.

It took a moment or so before the door opened and standing before him was Astrid. "Hello." she greeted in a friendly tone.

"Hey, Astrid, my name's Lee Everett. I believe your family and I have met a few times?" Lee answered.

"I think so. It's a big neighborhood." Astrid chuckled as they shook hands. "Why don't you come inside?"

"Thanks," Lee nodded, and Astrid held the door open for him. This was a nice house, very clean, he noticed.

Astrid escorted Lee into the living room where Sarah was sitting on the couch reading a book Carlos was in the kitchen, reading a paper while drinking some coffee.

"Carlos, we have a visitor." Astrid called out. "It's one of the new neighbors, Lee. Why don't you take a seat, Lee?"

"Sure," Lee took a seat in the armchair. Sarah put a bookmark (full of cats) into her book and closed it, setting it aside. Carlos walked into the living room and took a seat next to his daughter on the sofa.

"Hello. Lee, Everett, I assume." Carlos greeted, his cup of coffee in one hand. "We haven't got the chance to talk properly, yet. I'm Carlos, this is my wife Astrid and my daughter Sarah." he gestured his hands to both girls.

"Hi," Sarah smiled lightly and waved.

"Hey," Lee greeted them. He shook hands with Carlos.

"Please to meet you." Carlos replied as the ended their hand shake and sat back down.

"You haven't been in this neighborhood, very long, have you, Lee?" Astrid asked whilst setting down a cup of coffee on the table beside her.

"I haven't, I moved here after my wife cheated on me with a state senator," Lee explained.

"Oh." Astrid lowered her head slightly, wishing she had not brought it up now. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Lee shrugged. "I got over it a bit quicker than I thought."

"Well, I know it's none of our business, but I'm sure you made the right choice." Carlos replied before he took a sip out of his coffee. He decided to change the subject for now. "What brings you to our home, Lee?"

"Well, back in November I took some of the people here that I already knew down to Macon to visit my family and watch the local Thanksgiving parade," Lee mentioned. "And now that summer's coming, I was thinking about bringing them back down there for the Cherry Blossom Festival, and my dad suggested that I should bring more people. It's in a couple of weeks, when school is out for the summer. And I was thinking you guys might like to go."

Sarah brightened. "Can we go, Dad? Please?"

"I'll give you time to think about it if you need to," Lee suggested.

"I think it sounds like a good idea." Astrid replied, but she waited to hear her husband's opinion first.

Carlos turned towards his daughter who gave him those famous puppy eyes look. He had to admit that it had been a while since he and his family enjoyed a vacation together, and he could use sometime of work. "Well, I suppose I could get a few days off work. Sure, we'll come with you. But what neighborhood members are coming?"

"So far, there are Ed, Diana, and Clementine, Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck, and Omid and Christa," Lee answered. "Do you know any of them?"

"We know Clementine and her parents, Kenny and his family. And we met Omid and Christa a couple of times, but they seem like good people." Carlos answered after he took another sip of coffee.

"And there are our friends who we've known for a while now." Astrid added. "You might know them. Luke, Nick, Pete, Nick's mother Helen, Alvin and Rebecca."

"I know them a little bit," Lee replied. "I'll let my family know that you'll be coming along."

"Great." Astrid smile. "We look forward to meeting them."

"Yes, and thank you for inviting us." Carlos thanked. He decided to walk with Lee towards the front door of their home.

"Bye, Lee!" Sarah smiled and gave a friendly wave. Lee waved back at her.

At the door, Carlos ripped up a small piece of paper and wrote something down, handing it back to Lee. It was their home phone number, along with Carlos and Astrid's cell numbers.

"Here's our numbers." Carlos said, handing the paper to his neighbor. "In case you need to call us or if any emergencies. In case you were unaware, everyone here has each other's numbers."

"That's great, thanks Carlos," Lee responded, placing the paper in his jeans pocket. "I'll let you all go now."

The two bade one another good-bye, and Lee set off. Next he decided to go over to Luke and Nick's house, where they were roommates. Pete and Helen visited quite often, so there was a chance that they would be there as well.

He located their home that was not too far from Carlos' home and knocked on their door a couple of times. It did not take long for someone to answer, and it was no other than Pete, Nick's uncle.

"Hey, Lee." Pete greeted in a happy tone. He always seemed to be in a good mind most of the time. "And what brings you to my nephew's home?"

"I have something I'd like to announce to all of you," Lee replied. "Is everyone here?"

"Just me, Helen, Nick and Luke." Pete answered as he held the door open for Lee to walk inside. "Come on in."

Lee followed Pete into the living room where Luke and Nick were watching a football game together and Helen was on her laptop that was rested on a table.

"Hey everyone, it's Lee." Pete announced whilst taking a seat down in the armchair.

Nick and Luke quit yelling at the television, and Helen put her laptop away.

"Hey man, long time no see," Luke greeted with a friendly smile.

"Hey," Lee nodded, deciding to save the fact that he'd seen them yesterday for later.

Nick muted the TV for now and all eyes inside met Lee, wondering what had made him arrive to their home. Hopefully it wasn't to complain about all the noise Luke and Nick were making with their yelling, but that'd be a little impossible since he lived nowhere near them in the neighborhood.

"How are you, Lee?" Helen kindly inquired.

"I'm great, thanks," Lee responded. "I came by to tell you all something and I want you to let me know what you think."

"Let's hear it," Nick spoke up. He seemed to be a good mood today (his team was possibly winning).

Lee told everyone the same thing he had told everyone else so far, about traveling down to Macon for the Cherry Blossom Festival and asking if they would like to go. The four others glanced at one another.

"Nick and I can go," Luke decided. "Our pawn shop business ain't goin' so well, ha-ha." He let out a nervous laugh whilst scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, I'm getting old and I could do with something to enjoy myself." Pete agreed, followed by a chuckle.

"Thank you for the offer, Lee, but I think I'm doing to stay here." Helen kindly declined. "I've seen enough celebrations in my life time."

Lee nodded. "I understand, it's your decision."

The others were a bit surprised at Helen's refusal, but no one was going to force her into going. She had some long days of work coming up, anyway.

"So, two weeks?" Luke inquired.

"Yeah, I think you guys will like Macon," Lee confirmed. "Any of you ever been?"

"I went once." Pete spoke up with his hand raised in the air. "Back in my younger days when I was a trucker, I went down to Macon. It was a nice, quiet place."

"It is," Lee agreed. "I grew up there until I graduated high school."

"I remember begging to go," Nick added. He was about to take a drink of beer until Helen glared at him. Even though her son was an adult now, she still tried to make "rules" for him, making him give out that famous, "I'm a grown man, Ma."

"And yet you still ask me for allowance." Helen replied with a small grin.

Luke, Pete, and Lee all laughed as Nick crossed his arms and pouted. Lee got up from leaning against the wall and decided that it was time to go.

"I think I'll head out," he announced. "I'll see you all around."

"Later," Luke waved slightly.

"Bye, Lee." Helen bid him goodbye.

"See you later, Lee." Pete replied, a second later the door closed and he was left with his family again. Although Luke wasn't family exactly, he still treated him like a son.

He looked next door to see if Alvin and Rebecca were home, but neither of their cars was in the driveway. He continued to walk down the street and debated on whether or not to invite Lilly and Larry. It might not have been the best idea, but then again they would probably bitch at him for not being invited.

He would decide to ask them later. For now, he continued walking through the neighborhood until he noticed a house near Bonnie's home with a moving truck and multiple boxes stocked up across the yard. It looked like someone was moving in.

A man was carrying boxes in and out of his house. There wasn't anyone to help him, it looked like, so Lee decided to approach and talk to him. It would be a little weird to automatically invite him along to Macon, so he decided to make small talk.

"Hey there, name's Lee."

"Hey, I'm Mike." the man introduced himself as he just finished placing another box into his new home, but it did not look like he was done yet. "You live around here?"

"I live about a block away, I'm fairly new here too," Lee responded. "You, uh, need any help with those boxes?"

"Would be great, thanks." Mike thanked as he picked up another two boxes in both his arms and carried them towards his home. He looked surprisingly stronger than he looked.

Lee picked up some boxes and followed them into the house. This process continued a few more times until nearly all of the boxes were no longer outside.

"Thanks for the help, man, I really appreciate it." Mike expressed his gratitude as he turned towards the remaining boxes. Only four of them remained. "I can take it from here."

For a moment, Lee didn't know whether he should leave Mike alone or talk to him a bit. Then he decided that he might as well let Mike settle into his new home.

"Alright, maybe I see you around?" Lee offered.

"Sure." Mike agreed. "After I settle in and meet the new neighbors, we should go for a drink or something. Any neighbors I should try to avoid?"

"Well..." Lee trailed off. He looked around to make sure that certain neighbors weren't in sight. "I think you'll know when you see them, but there's this woman and her dad. They have pretty short tempers, so...just try to steer clear of them. Their names are Lilly and Larry."

""Lilly and Larry."" Mike repeated those two names to make certain he did not forget them. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks. What are the others like? I saw some lady with red hair, she looked nice."

"I haven't had a problem with any other neighbors," Lee replied. "The woman with the red hair is Bonnie. I think you two would make pretty good friends. Oh...and if you hear shouting, it's probably Luke and Nick. They're the two farm boys who live a few houses down, and they're probably watching' football or something."

"Ahh, no big deal. Every neighborhood has one of those." Mike replied as he looked up his watch and realized the time. "Whoa, I better get this truck back before they charge me more. Good talking to you."

"Yeah, you too," Lee nodded. He walked away and decided to go home for now. Maybe he would call some people so that he wouldn't have to drop by every which way.

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><p><strong>That's chapter 3 published, folks. Looks like Lee is organziing a trip to Macon and he has met the Hidalgo family, and now they have a new neighbor. Chapter 4 coming soon, ladies and gentlemen. <strong>


	4. Chapter 4: planning a date

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 4: planning a date  
><strong>

**What up! It's Assassin's Creed Master here with A Writer With Mixed Interests and welcome TO CHAPTER 4! I'm sorry, I need to calm down a little bit, ya'll probably thinking "What the hell is wrong with this dude?"**

**Anyway, here we have chapter 4. Even though the main story is set in the neighborhood, there will be other places that will be seen later in the story. Also, just to clarify, Clementine and Duck are the same age of 11-years-old in this story. I noticed a review by someone who mistaken Duck to be thirteen. Just thought I'd clear that up.**

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><p>On his way through the neighborhood, Lee was too deep in thought that was unaware of the figure charging straight towards him. Just as he realized, it was too late and he was knocked to the floor by Sam. The dog began to lick his face happily.<p>

"Ahh!" Lee cried out as he got attacked by dog kisses.

"Hey! Sam, don't do that!" Kenny reprimanded as he moved the dog out of the way. He moved over and held out his hand for Lee to take, and the other man accepted. "Sorry about that, pal," Kenny chuckled.

"Nah, it's fine," Lee nodded. "Hey Katjaa, Duck."

"Hello, Lee," Katjaa said.

"Hey, Lee!" Duck greeted as he grabbed Sam's collar to prevent him from running away a second time.

Sam sat down on the ground and looked up with his tongue out of his mouth.

"So, you get anyone else to come along on this trip you're planning?" Kenny inquired.

"Well, so far I've got Luke, Nick, and Pete, and Carlos and his family are coming along too," Lee replied. "I was going to go home and call around. Figure I would get some new people so more of the neighborhood can get to know each other."

"Well, think long and hard before you decided to invite-" Kenny began, but was cut off by a new voice. They turned, and there was both Lilly and Larry approaching them. "...Great."

They all turned to face her and Duck hid behind his father in fear, but there was no way in hell Kenny would let anyone hurt his son.

"Now I'm only going to ask this once." Lilly spoke up, her hands placed to her hips as she tried to keep a cool head. "Do you know punctured who my tires? And if you're being honest, I promise to just leave it at that."

"Listen, princess, I don't who slashed your fuckin' tires, okay?" Kenny retorted. "Now stop accusing me!"

"You're lying!" Larry screamed at him, starting to approach. But Lilly placed a hand on his chest and shook her head.

"Dad, stay calm." Lilly warned him due to his medical problems which were one of the reasons he had to retire. She shifted her attention back towards the neighbors and looked closely to their faces to wonder if they were lying or not. Once she was satisfied, she decided to leave. "Come on, Dad, let's go."

And off they went. Sam let out a low growl, and Kenny briefly patted him on the head to calm him, which worked.

"Well, we better get going," Kenny sighed. "See you 'round, Lee."

Lee nodded. "I'll see you all later."

The family walked off with their dog. Lee continued to walk until he reached his house, and went inside.

The first thing Lee did was check his phone and noticed he had three messages for him. He sat down in his chair and decided to play them.

_"Message 1. Left at 11:49 AM."_

_"Hey, Lee, it's uh, it's Omid. Christa's going a little crazy because she can't find her cellphone and she's wondering if she left it at yours. Uh, if you know, give us a call-"_ Omid cut himself off when he heard Christa in the background. _"Shoot, I got to go. Peace."_

_"Message 2. Left at 12:02 PM."_

_"Hey, dude, it's Omid again. Christa found her phone; it was in our cat's litter box. Christa's a little pissed but she's glad to have her phone back. Uh, sorry if I made you look. See ya."_

Lee couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He sat down in his recliner and listen to the third message.

_"Message 3. Left at 12:10 PM."_

_"Hey, honey, it's Mom. I was just wondering when you were going to get back to us? Give us a call."_

_"You have no new messages."_

That was all of his messages for now. He decided to get back to grading the rest of those papers since they were due for tomorrow, but in a couple of weeks, all schools were out and he had all the time in world for a long while.

These papers were nothing compared to finals that would take place this coming Friday. Lee got done in about an hour, and he wondered what to do. He decided to stay home for now.

He was feeling a little hungry but was not in the mood to cook anything. He decided to order. He picked up the phone and decided to phone for a pizza.

Lee ordered a pizza with pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms, his total coming to $8.45. He decided to see if there was anything good on the history channel, and settled on a documentary about the presidents.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang, meaning that the pizza was here. The man on the other side (his nametag reading Glenn) handed him the pizza, and Lee paid him.

"Thanks," Lee said.

"That's $8.45, please." Glenn requested, exchanging the pizza for the $10.00 handed to him by Lee. He was going to give Lee his change, but since it was not much, Lee told him to keep it. "Thanks, man. Just to make sure it's right, it's pizza with pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms."

"Yes," Lee confirmed. "Thanks again."

Glenn nodded and walked off. Lee grabbed a couple of slices and placed the rest of the box in the fridge.

As he enjoyed his dinner, Lee could not help but feel somewhat lonely in this home of his. He was grateful of course to be in such a great neighborhood with great friends, but he wished he had somewhere to share it with. When he first moved in and he met Carley, Lee had to admit that he wanted to ask her out, but never found the time to.

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><p><em>Lee took the last of his boxes inside his new home and was now settled in. After settling in, he decided to go for a walk to get to know the rest of the neighborhood. As he walked by, he noticed a little girl walking his way with a hat on her head. She was walking with an older man who Lee assumed was her father.<em>

_Lee decided to go say hello to them. These two people seemed to have the same idea, because they approached them first._

_"Hey," he greeted with a light smile. "I'm Lee Everett, your new neighbor."_

_"Please to meet you, Lee." the man greeted as they shook hands. He looked like a friendly man. "My names Ed Smith. This is my daughter, Clementine. We live right next door."_

_"Hi." Clementine greeted with a small smile._

_"Ed and Clementine," Lee repeated the names to remember them as he shook Clementine's hand. "Pleasure."_

_"We'd love to stay and introduce you to the neighborhood, but Clementine, my wife and I are heading out for a family meal soon. Drop by and see us sometime." Ed replied before he and Clementine proceeded towards their house, waving goodbye to Lee._

_Lee waved in return as he passed a couple of more houses. However, as he approached one house, he noticed a woman who looked a little younger than him getting her mail out of her box. He could not help but admit she looked a little beautiful and decided to go and greet her, but he wouldn't jump the gun yet._

_The woman looked up when she saw Lee approach, and stood up, placing her mail on the outdoor table nearby._

_"Hey there," Lee greeted._

_"Hi." she greeted in return with a smile. "I haven't seen you around here before. Just moved in?"_

_"Yeah. I'm from Athens, grew up in Macon," Lee answered. "Decided to meet a few of the neighbors. Name's Lee, Lee Everett."_

_"Nice to meet you, Lee." Carley greeted as they shook hands. "I'm Carley, Carley Mayman."_

_They shook hands. Carley decided to ask him some questions._

_"Why don't you come in for a while?" Carley offered, holding the door open as they both walked into Carley's home. She offered him a seat on the couch whilst she sat on the armchair. "So, been in Georgia long?"_

_"My whole life," Lee responded. "I decided to move to Atlanta after my wife cheated on me with the state senator. The divorce was only official two weeks ago. I came here to get a fresh start."_

_"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Carley expressed her sympathy, but she decided to change the subject before she ended up saying something hurtful. "So, know any of the neighbors yet?"_

_Lee had to think about that for a moment. There was Kenny, Katjaa and Duck who he had known for a long time now and they were one of the reasons he decided to move into this neighborhood. Aside from them, the only other people he met were Clementine and her father Ed moments ago._

_"I've been friends with Kenny and his family for years. He was the one who showed me the house for sale on this street," Lee explained. "I just met Ed Smith and his daughter Clementine when I left the house. Do you know them?"_

_"Yeah I know them." Carley replied. "They're a good family and Clementine's a sweet kid. I know most of the neighbors here. There's Doug, he's kind of a nerd but he's good with technology. There's Omid and his girlfriend Christa, they live together. There's Luke and his best friend Nick, Nick's mother Helen and his uncle Pete. There's Carlos and his wife Astrid and their daughter Sarah. And there's Lilly and her dad Larry, but I'd try to avoid them, they're a little...Well, they're assholes."_

_Lee smiled lightly. "I'll keep that in mind. I'll meet them tomorrow since it's almost dark now." There was a pause, and he decided to make some conversation. "So, what do you do? What's your job?"_

_"I'm a reporter for WABE." Carley answered. "It's a great job, but my boss is a bit of bitch. The once I was tempted to throw my microphone at her."_

_"Good thing you didn't," Lee snickered. "I'm a history professor at UGA. I'm going on my sixth year there now. It's a pretty good job."_

_"Sounds like a great job." Carley agreed._

_For the next hour or so, Lee and Carley got to know each other better but soon, Lee left to go and unpack his things. He was glad to have met a couple of his neighbors so far. He liked Carley and hoped they could get the chance to know each other more._

* * *

><p>"Hmm, maybe I should call her and see if you would like to go to dinner," Lee muttered to himself. He finished his pizza and took out his phone, dialing Carley's number. She picked up after three rings.<p>

_"Hello?"_ Carley spoke on the other end. Lee was now unsure on what to say at this point and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. _"Hello? Is anyone there?"_

Lee cleared his throat and spoke before Carley hung up. "Hey. Hey, Car, it's Lee. Sorry."

_"Oh, hey Lee."_ Carley greeted. _"What's up?"_

Now was the truly most awkward part. Lee found himself unable to comprehend the words he wanted to say, so for now he decided to just go with small talk. "Just sitting at home, watching the history channel and grabbed some dinner. You?"

_"Just doing some laundry and now I'm just watching TV."_ Carley answered. _"You called just to ask me what I'm doing?"_ she said with a chuckle.

_"Damn it..."_ Lee thought. Here goes nothing. "Would you want to, uh...?"

_"Want to what?"_ Carley asked in a normal tone, unaware of where he was going with this and what he was trying to say.

"Would you want to go out with me sometime?" Lee asked in one breath. He didn't know what Carley would say, he knew she was single and he was too.

_"Like a date?"_ Carley corrected. Lee was now more nervous than before and thought she was going to turn him down, but he was surprised by her next response. _"Sure, that sounds great."_

"Really?" Lee was smiling now. "Uhh..." he coughed awkwardly. "How about next Friday night, we can go for dinner or something."

_"Sounds fun to me."_ Carley agreed. _"Where are we going? Or do you want to surprise me?"_

"I'll think of something," Lee told her.

_"All righty."_ Carley agreed, but Lee could not tell she was smiling on the other end of the line. By the looks of it, she was looking forward to their date. _"In case I don't see you in the week, I look forward to seeing you Friday."_

"I'll see you then, Carley, bye," Lee hung up the phone. He felt very satisfied, as if the weight of the world had just been lifted off his shoulders. He knew that this date with Carley would be a perfect way to celebrate the end of the school year.

Too excited to control himself, Lee spun around and practically skipped up and down the stairs once. He wanted to move on ever since his divorce with his wife and Carley was the perfect woman he would love nothing more than to take out on a date.

Lee sat back down on the sofa and tried to take his mind off of it for now. He had a rather long week coming up. He was looking forward to this summer, though. He knew that it would be an enjoyable one.

Before long, there was a knock on the day and Lee got up to answer it. Standing before him was Doug, who was holding a laptop in his hands that belonged to Lee. A couple of weeks back, Lee's laptop refused to start up and he took it to Doug for repairs.

"Hey, Lee, I fixed your laptop." Doug announced as he went onto the details. "I found the problem, the computer fan overheated and that caused the motherboard to burn out. Something had jammed the fan. I replaced the motherboard and fixed the computer fan. And while I was at it, I decided to upgrade your Central Processing Unit, your Random Access Memory, your hard drive and you graphics card. Now your laptop will run a lot faster than before, it has better screen quality, and you still have all of your memory."

"Thanks, Doug," Lee said gratefully, taking his computer and setting it on the kitchen counter before returning to the door. He took out his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

"Well, I usually charge $80, but since we're friends, I'll let you have it for $50." Doug answered as he placed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He was a good guy and Lee wondered how he lived without him.

Lee pulled out a $50 bill and handed it over to Doug. "Thanks again man, I appreciate it."

"No problem, man. If you ever need anything fixed, you know how to call." Doug assured with a smile. "Well, I guess I better head back home. I promised Kenny I'd take a look at his TV. See you later, Lee."

"See ya," Lee nodded, and Doug saw himself out. He closed the door and put his computer back at the bar in the kitchen.

He opened up the internet and decided to check his emails to see if he had anything to check. He only had one email and that was just one of those advertisement emails. Next, he decided to check his Facebook account to see if he got any messages or notifications. He logged on and the first thing he saw was Omid's profile with a picture of Whiskers laying on the floor. That must have been when he got drunk.

Lee laughed out loud and decided to like and leave a comment (there were already 250 likes and 50 comments...yeah; Omid had a lot of friends). It said, "Next time, don't leave your flask of whiskey close to the edge of the table where the cat can get it, Omid."

Lee sometimes wondered how Omid and Christa got together in the first place.

When he was a kid, his mother would always tell him, "Opposites always attract." And from the looks of it, she was right. Lee stared at the photo of the dead-asleep cat for a few minutes before chuckling again.

There was another photo from Kenny and it showed Duck sleeping on his bed with Sam lying near him. Duck must have finally tired himself out.

Lee couldn't help but smile. Duck was chock full of energy and life, and Kenny and Katjaa must have always been relieved to see him quiet for once.

He decided to log off Facebook for now and proceeded to finish off those papers. The sooner he got them done, the more time he would have to himself.

Eventually, he finished up and looked at the clock. 10:30 PM. Lee decided that he best get to bed soon if he wanted to be at the university on time tomorrow. Students weren't the only ones who hated Mondays, but at least it was the final one for a few months and then he would be free for a long time.

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><p><strong>That brings us to the end of chapter 4, folks. It looks like Lee and Carley will be going on their first date soon, let's see how this goes. As always, be sure to hit that review button for faster updates, folks.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5: work at the university

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 5: work at the university **

**Hello, hello, it's me Assassin and A Writer With Mixed Interests and here we have another chapter for you folks. Now this chapter is a little shorter compared to the others so far, but don't worry about it because next chapter is going to be here tomorrow when it's Monday; everybody's favorite day of the week.**

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><p>Lee woke up to the sound of his loud alarm clock. He turned it off and looked at the time: 7:30 AM. He had to be at the university by 9. Like every morning, he got up, had a shower, brushed his teeth, got dressed, had breakfast, gathered his things, and left the house and drove to the university.<p>

There were students and teachers alike walking around the campus as Lee pulled into his usual parking spot. He gathered what he needed and headed into the classroom. Some students were already there, so he waited a few minutes before most of them arrived. It seemed as if more students were present around exam time.

"Morning everyone," Lee greeted the class. "On Friday, we left off by reviewing for this week's final. Let's get started."

Everyone took a seat and opened up their books simultaneously.

Overall, it was a typical day in class. Students took notes in their notebooks or on their laptops as Lee wrote whatever necessary information was needed on the board.

One student, a Russian kid with glasses on raised his hand and asked a question. "Professor Everett, was it true that the British would have won the revolution war if it weren't for Paul Revere?"

"Yes, Arvo, Paul Revere alerted the militia to the approach of the British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord," Lee explained.

The boy, Arvo, nodded and jotted that information down in his notebook.

The rest of the session went quite well as usual and Lee was relieved to see none of the students had acted immature. Once his sessions was over and he had an hour for his lunch break, Lee decided to head down to the exit to get some lunch. On his way there, he encountered another teacher named Walter who also taught history along with English.

"Hey Walter, class go okay today?" he inquired of the older man.

"It went great. But a couple of kids from different cliques got into a fight." Walter answered with his hands placed to his hips. But he still had a smile across his face. "One of them was from the Greasers and the other one was from the Jocks."

"Did the greasers spray paint their cars again?" Lee rolled his eyes, smiling lightly.

"Probably." Walter grinned. "I wish there was a way for all of them just to get along."

"Tell that to my neighbor Lilly," Lee said with a sigh.

"Well, a good thing Matthew and I live on the other side of town." Walter replied. Matthew was his partner who worked at a local bar. "So, you up for getting something to eat? My sessions finish for a while."

"Sure, I'm free for an hour," Lee responded, getting up. "We can take my car."

"We can head to that fast food restaurant about ten minutes down the road." Walter replied as he followed Lee towards the exit of the university.

"Sure," Lee nodded. He climbed into the driver's seat and Walter in the passenger seat, driving to the local McDonald's. They paid for their food and decided to sit outside.

Lee was quite hungry today and decided to buy a big mac with large fries. Walter was trying to keep healthy so he brought some fruits and salad along with his fries and McNuggets.

"So, how's Matthew?" Lee inquired as he dipped three fries in some ketchup. "You two going to that ski lodge this summer?"

"Yep, same as every other summer." Walter replied after he took a bite out of his fries. "Let's not hope it turns out to be like last year when Matthew sprained his arm on the way down the mountain."

"Yikes," Lee said in a low voice. "I've never been skiing, actually."

"You should go sometime, its really fun and skiing is not that hard." Walter replied. "So, do you have any plans for the summer, Lee?"

"I'm going to be taking most of the people in my neighborhood to Macon with me to visit my family and see the Cherry Blossom festival. It's a great event, lasts for ten days. I think they'll like it."

"That sounds like a great idea." Walter agreed, dipping his nuggets into some red sauce before taking a bite. "I remember some of your neighbors. I remember Clementine and her dad and Kenny with his family. They all looked like great friends."

"Yeah, they're all great people," Lee responded as he took a drink of Dr. Pepper. "Kenny has a temper sometimes, but he's easy to get along with most of the time."

"Sounds like one of my neighbors, too." Walter agreed.

Before long, the two finished their dinner and headed back to the university with ten minutes left to spare. Along the way, they noticed another teacher telling off two boys from different cliques. His name was William Carver, a teacher who worked here and taught English. He sometimes yelled really loud that caused students to fear him, but overall, he was a good teacher and got the job done. He just needed to calm down a little.

"Okay, what's the problem?" Lee decided to step in.

"These two little punks got into a fight outside of my class." Carver explained, placing his hands to his hips as he eyed the two boys standing before him. "It makes me sick. This university was built to help people of young age with their generation, and how is it we're paid for our generosity? Having to step in and treat you like children."

Sometimes Carver acted like he was some kind of dictator, but Lee guessed that it was just his nature. He wasn't a bad man, but sometimes he overreacted.

"It wasn't MY fault!" one of the students cried in defense. "This asshole decided to walk up to me and accused me of stealing' his girlfriend, and punched me in the face! If anything, HE needs to be punished!"

Carver huffed and folded his arms together. He was going to handle this himself, but after so many times, he decided to allow this job for someone else. "Well, then, I'm going to let Professor Everett handle this."

He stomped off, probably to prepare for his next lesson. Lee approached the two boys, who did not look the least bit happy.

"Now listen, I don't care who started the fight," Lee reprimanded. He usually didn't yell unless he was furious. "But if I ever have to deal with the two of you again, you can bet that you'll be out of here faster than you can blink. Understand?"

Both boys merely nodded in response.

"Good. It's about time for class, so go." Lee ordered.

The two boys nodded obediently in their separate directions, the one who had spoken up muttering swears under his breath. Lee turned to look at Walter. "See you later."

"See you, Lee." Walter waved before proceeding back to his own classroom.

Lee turned and began down the hall to his history classroom. This class was a bit more rowdy than the previous one as it was the one after lunch, making the students have more energy. But he knew that he could keep control. After all, his day ended at six, only four more hours.

The rest of Lee's day at the university went well and it was time for him to head home for the day. He was confident that he was getting these students the knowledge they needed to pass their upcoming exams and it would please him more if he was able to get all of them to an A. But until tomorrow, it was time to go home and relax for the rest of the day.

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><p><strong>And that brings us to the end of another chapter, fellow readers. Now in case you missed the author's note at the beginning, next chapter is going to be here tomorrow. What time, I don't know as most people here have a major time difference compared to me, but it'll be here, don't worry.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6: making preparations

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 6: making preparations **

**Yo, everyone, how ya'll doing? Just as a promised yesterday, here's the next chapter. It was actually lucky I could update today because yesterday, I had a major problem with my laptop, but fortunately, I was able to fix it. Without further or do, here's chapter 6.**

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><p>The next several days passed, and before Lee knew it, it was Friday. The last day of school for three months, and his date with Carley later tonight. During that time, he had also invited Doug, Mark, Ben and his family, Alvin and Rebecca (after convincing them that it was a quiet and safe city so they wouldn't have to worry about their son's safety), Bonnie, and even Mike to Macon, with all of them agreeing. Lee got out of bed and prepared for his big day.<p>

His date with Carley was not until 18:00 PM so he had a lot of time to kill. As he got into the kitchen and searched inside his cabinets and fridge for some breakfast, he realized he was running low on food. Maybe he would go and kept some shopping since he did not have to go to university because his students were taking their exams in a private room where they would not be disturb or require a teacher.

Lee got his car keys and went outside, where Clementine and Duck were kicking around a soccer ball in Clem's front yard. Lee smiled at them, they looked happy to be on summer break. Clementine noticed Lee and waved. He waved back.

Lee stepped into his car, started the engine and pulled out of the driveway and drove through his neighborhood until he was out and began to drive to the supermarket. He noticed he was a little low on gas to so he would have to get some either on the way there or on the way back.

He luckily managed to make it to the local store without running out of gas. He was hoping that shopping would take his mind off of the excitement he had for his date tonight, and he still didn't even know where he was going to take Carley.

Whilst Lee was grabbing some groceries to put into his shopping cart, he noticed one of his neighbors walking around, carrying a shopping basket. It was Bonnie, who seemed to be unaware that Lee was nearby She was too busy looking at the back of a couple of cans.

She immediately looked up and gave a startled gasp, then smiled lightly.

"Hey, Bonnie," Lee greeted.

"Lee, you gave me a bit of a jump there." Bonnie admitted after she dropped a can into her basket. "Good to see you, Lee. I take it you ain't here to buy us all some sandwiches for the trip to Macon, are you?" she smiled slightly to let him know she was being somewhat sarcastic, but Lee already figured that out.

"Not yet," he replied, smirking. "I'm thinking we should leave around two weeks on Monday, right before the festival. By the way, how are you?"

"Doing fine, thanks. Just picking up some groceries and then going to pick up some stuff for my back yard." Bonnie answered. "I got that new guy, Mike helping me. He's a nice guy and he told me he use to do a bit of gardening during his time as a construction working."

"My parents like to garden too," Lee commented. "Not that I blame you or anyone else, it's a good hobby."

"It's always been a talent of mine. I like it, it's fun." Bonnie replied with a smile. She was always a nice person and someone who always liked to stay positive. "So, just picking up some shopping?"

"Yeah. Used to hate it as a kid, but now I understand what my mom went through," Lee snickered. "Well, I guess I'll see you soon, Bonnie?"

"Sure. I'll see you around, Lee." Bonnie bade him goodbye and proceeded to another area of the supermarket to continue her own shopping.

Lee proceeded to get the stuff he needed, cereal and milk for one so he could have breakfast when he got home. He got all the other things he needed and proceeded to the check-out counter, where a woman named Shel was scanning some items. Lee met her a few times and seemed to get along with her fairly.

Lee dug out his wallet and paid for his items. "Thanks, Shel."

"No problem." Shel replied as she accepted his twenty dollar bill and placed it into the register. She brought out some coins and handed Lee his change. "Thanks for shopping. Come back soon."

Lee nodded and headed back out to his car. While he was driving home, he thought about where he should take Carley tonight. He still had plenty of time before he had to pick her up. He was thinking about trying that new Italian restaurant downtown.

As he was deep in thought, Lee shifted his attention towards the gas meter in his car and could see it was near empty. He pulled his car over into the gas station just in time and pulled inside to fill up his car.

He heard thunder and looked at the sky, noticing that dark clouds were beginning to shadow over. Lee groaned, he didn't like driving in the rain and hoped to get home before it started pouring. He paid for his gas at the pump and headed home. Once inside, he sat on the couch and decided to call his parents.

The phone rang a couple of times before it was answered by Lee's father.

_"Everett's pharmacy, how can I help you?"_ John spoke on the other end of the lone.

"Hey, Dad." Lee greeted while expecting to be hung up on any second now. "It's Lee."

_"Hey, son. Oh, one sec."_ before Lee could reply, John hung up the store phone again and proceeded to go and fetch his cellphone. Lee's phone rang a minute later and was not surprised to hear it was his father again. _"Sorry about that."_

"I just wanted to tell you that I've got enough people now for this trip," Lee responded. "I think we'll arrive in a couple of weeks on a Monday. That cool?"

In his head, he replayed the names of everyone going:

Ed, Diana, and Clementine  
>Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck<br>Carley  
>Doug<br>Ben, his parents, and sister Katie  
>Mark<br>Alvin, Rebecca, and AJ  
>Luke, Nick, and Pete<br>Carlos, Astrid, and Sarah  
>Bonnie<br>Mike

_"Sounds good to me."_ John agreed._ "I've spoken to my friend who owns the motel nearby and he says there's enough room for all of your friends coming. And I trust you got a bus organized?"_

"I still need to do that. I was going to start planning this weekend," Lee responded. Now he was debating on whether or not to tell John about Carley.

_"Well, as long as all of them can get here without trouble, it should be fine."_ John assured. He decided to change the subject for now since he and Lee did not talk that much often. _"So how's university? How's Kenny? Anything new?"_

"It's the last day today, I'm supposed to go up there on Monday to find out the results of my students' exams," Lee answered. "God, I'm looking forward to three months off, and with pay. Kenny and his family are great. Duck is still a ball of energy, just so you know." Lee chuckled, remembering last time when Duck drove nearly everyone up the freaking wall with his constant chatter.

_"Hasn't changed that much then." _John replied, followed by a slight chuckle. _"Well, I got to help your mother and Blake with the store for a while because we got an inspection today. I'll talk to you soon. Looking forward to seeing you guys."_

"Alright. Bye, Dad," Lee nodded. He hung up the phone and wondered what to do now.

He checked the time but frowned when he realized it was only 1:30 PM, and to make matters worse, it was raining. Out of all the days in a year, the day he is going on a date with Carley just happens to be the one that has bad weather. Hopefully it would have stopped by 18:00 PM.

Lee decided to watch a movie to pass some time. He made some popcorn and decided to sort through his small collection of DVDs until he found one he liked, The Patriot. Of course it was a history movie. He had watched it once at Omid and Christa's house with them and he was hooked. Afterwards, Lee and Omid had talked about it for hours with Christa smiling and shaking her head multiple times.

The movie had lasted for almost three hours until it ended and during that time, the rain had eventually passed and the sun came out. As the credits to the movie came to an end, Lee turned towards his clock again where the time read 3:20 PM. Still a couple of more hours to kill. Maybe he could use this time to find a place for him and Carley to have their date in.

He grabbed his recently returned laptop and decided to search online for any nearby restaurants.

There was that new Italian restaurant he'd had in mind earlier, so he decided to check the reviews. The restaurant had nearly four stars total, and positive reviews such as "good food and nice servers," so Lee thought about it.

"Might not be a bad idea, I've never tried there," he said to himself.

And that was where he was going to go. He picked up the phone and decided to book a table. Hopefully they would not be full by now.

"Hi, uh, booth for two at six-fifteen, please?" Lee requested. "Party's surname is Everett."

_"Okay, Mr. Everett, a booth for two and you're booked in for six-fifteen."_ someone who worked in the restaurant confirmed and repeated almost the same lines as him.

"That's great, we'll see you then," Lee said.

_"Thanks for calling."_ the man on the other end thanked before he hung up on his end. Now the location of their date was settled.

Lee wasn't quite sure how else to pass his time. Watching another movie would probably make him lose track, and it was still pouring, so he couldn't go for a walk.

He decided to just go on his laptop for a while.

There was lots of drama going on his Facebook page, including some statuses from Lilly asking random people if they slashed her tires. Lee sometimes wondered why he was even friends with her.

Still, he was glad she was not coming on their trip with them. He went over to check his notifications and noticed one from Christa. It showed Omid watching a movie about civil war with Christa writing about how Omid could get into that stuff. And sitting in Omid's lap was Whiskers.

The exact caption was, _"I swear, I don't know how anyone could be so into civil war movies...or cats for that matter."_ There were seven likes.

Lee decided to comment, _"He's not the only one who likes civil war movies."_

It took only a couple of minutes for Christa to reply that said _"That's no surprise."_

Soon, Lee saw that Omid liked his comment and decided that was enough of that, and decided to check more statuses.

There was one from Carlos who updated his status to say "I tough day at the hospital today. Someone in the waiting room was getting annoyed because he wasn't being served yet. We had to call security when he was beginning to get a little crazy."

Lee frowned and wanted to ask what had eventually happened, but knew it probably wasn't any of his business. "That's enough Facebook for today," he told himself as he logged onto YouTube.

There was a recent video on the homepage that had got a lot of reviews. The title read "Mutant Giant Spider Dog"

"A hundred million views?" Lee raised his eyebrows in slight astonishment, and clicked on Play.

The video had caused him to laugh a couple of times that he almost could not breathe. How could anyone be so stupid to fall for a dog dressed in a spider suit? Regardless of what happened, he thought it was hilarious.

He decided to share the video to his Facebook and see how people would react. He was still snickering to himself as he uploaded it.

It was not really surprising to see Omid was the first to like and comment. He put down _"Watched that video a million times and it still has my laughing. That gives me an idea with Whiskers."_

Lee rolled his eyes, still grinning, and replied with, _"When he scratches your face up, don't come crying to me."_

Omid did not leave a comment, but a like instead. It was not long until Christa left a comment saying _"Don't even think about it, Omid."_

Omid just said, _"Relax, babe. It'll be fine."_

Okay, now it was really time to get off of Facebook. He checked the time and saw that it was now 5:15 PM, and at that moment, he got a text from Carley, asking if she needed to wear anything formal. Lee told her to just wear something casual. But that did not mean he was not going to just wear something fancy. He decided to finally get ready for his data. After taking a shower and shortening his beard down a little, Lee on some fancy jeans with a nice dark blue polo shirt.

Now dressed and prepared, Lee proceeded to leave his home soon now that the weather had settled and meet up with Carley for their date. He was really looking forward to it and hoped it would go well.

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><p><strong>That brings us to the end of this chapter, folks. Lee is going for his date with Carley, and soon, all of the neighborhood are going to Macon for the vacation. Chapter 7 coming soon.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7: the date

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 7: the date**

_**"They say the only way to survive in a zombie apocalypse is by being the survivalist of the fittest, but working alone will only get you so far. Working as a team can accomplish anything...Not me of course, because I prefer working alone. That's just me."**_

**Hey everyone, we're back with chapter 17. Hope you enjoyed that little quote of mine just then, just something I made from scratch. Anyway, how's everyone doing? Hope you're doing good, and just remember, the weekend is here soon and what better to celebrate than a good-old chapter from us? Enjoying reading.**

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><p>By the time Lee was done getting himself prepared, it was 5:52 PM. The walk to Carley's house was only about five minutes away, but he was debating on whether or not to leave now. His brother Blake would sometimes tell him it was cool to be "fashionably late," but Lee wasn't sure.<p>

He decided to be perfect and knocked on the door the second his watch reached 18:00 PM. He waited patiently until the door opened and standing before him was Carley, looking as beautiful as ever. She was wearing a light blue blouse with a black skirt that went down to just above her ankles. She also had on just a little bit of dark eye shadow.

Lee had to shake his head quickly to keep from staring, and offered her a smile. "Hey. You ready to go?"

"Yep, been looking forward to this date." Carley replied with a smile as she grabbed her purse and stepped out of her house, locking the door behind her.

Lee and Carley held hands as they proceeded over towards Lee's cars. Lee, being the gentlemen he is, held the passenger door open for Carley.

Carley thanked him and got inside. Lee got into the driver's seat and began traveling downtown to where this new restaurant was. They had a good bit of business, mostly families, so the reviews must have been true.

"I decided to try this place out, that's okay?" Lee inquired.

"As long as it serves good thing and good service, that's perfect with me." Carley replied with a small smile across her face. She decided to sit back and enjoy the ride as Lee drove them to the location of their data. "So-o-o-o-o-o..."

"So-o-o, how are...things?" Lee wanted to know.

"They're good." Carley merely nodded in response. This conversation was getting awkward. "So-o-o how's the university?"

"Glad to be out for the summer," Lee replied. "Well...Monday I have to go back for some things, and THEN I'm out. How's the job?"

"My boss is still a bit of bitch, but I think I'm beginning to get on her good side." Carley answered. "But it's going good."

"That's great," Lee commented.

The drive to the restaurant only took a few minutes since it was not that far away. Once the restaurant came into view, Lee announced this to Carley. "Looks like we're here."

The two pulled into the car park and exited the car and proceeded towards the entrance to the restaurant. Lee held the door open and allowed Carley to walk in first that earned him a peck on the cheek. The two approached a man standing behind a stand who greeted them in a friendly manner.

"Good evening, sir, madam. May I ask if you've booked a table for tonight?" he inquired politely.

"Yes. Everett, party for two," Lee responded, his cheek tingling after receiving that short kiss.

The host looked down the list for a few seconds until he found his name. "Ah, yes, booth for two. Please follow me and I'll escort you to your booth."

Lee and Carley were escorted to their booth and both of them sat down opposite from each other. The booth was quite comfortable and this restaurant looked quite fancy. No wonder it got good reviews. But Lee would not judge it until he tried the food.

"A waiter will be with you shortly. Please enjoy yourselves and enjoy your meals." the host informed them before he made his way back to his previous position.

"I hope you like Italian food," Lee told Carley as he picked up his menu.

A minute or so later, a waiter came over with his notepad. "Hello, my name's Shawn and I'll be taking care of you tonight. May I start you off with some drinks?"

"I'll have a Dr. Pepper," Lee spoke up, and turned to Carley.

"And just water for me, thanks." Carley requested.

"Alright, I'll be back momentarily," Shawn wrote on his notepad and walked away.

While he was gone, Lee and Carley began to look at the menus. Lee did not eat Italian food that often, but that did not mean he did not like it. Plus, they served other food as well.

"Hmm, the lobster looks very tempting." Carley admitted, either speaking to herself or Lee.

"Get anything you want," Lee told her. He took a look at his own menu. "I like this herb chicken and pasta."

"Sounds delicious." Carley agreed as the two set down their menus and just at perfect timing when Shawn returned with their drinks. "We're ready to order now. I'll have the lobster please."

"I'll have the chicken and pasta, and could we also have some rolls, please?" Lee requested.

Shawn set their drinks down and wrote down their orders. "Okay, your food shouldn't take long, and your rolls will be out in the next few minutes," he told them, and walked away again.

Lee stirred his Dr. Pepper around. "So...any plans for the summer, other than Macon?"

"My parents asked me if I was interesting in going to their summer home for a while, but not sure that I will because I got no-one to go with." Carley answered after she took a sip of water. "Other than that, I'm not sure what to do."

"Oh," Lee nodded. "As for me, I'm not really sure. I think Ed and Diana want a neighborhood get-together for the fourth of July."

"All of the neighbors?" Carley asked. Lee nodded in response. "That could be fun, but whole neighborhood includes Lilly and Larry."

"I overheard Lilly saying something about going out of town then," said Lee. "So maybe it won't be a disaster."

"Maybe." Carley agreed. "Before you moved in, Lilly was actually a good person once. But ever since her dad retired, she just hasn't been the same."

Lee frowned as he took a sip of his soda. "Any chance you know what happened?"

"Nope." Carley simply answered. She decided to change subject since this was their first date together. "Enough about Lilly. What is there to know about Lee Everett that I don't already know?"

"Well, you know I like history," Lee stated. "Sometimes I go to a museum just for fun...usually after Omid blabs about how great it is."

Carley chuckled quietly to herself for a few seconds. "Sounds fun. What made you want to become a teacher at the university? Has it always been a dream job?"

"I always wanted to teach history, ever since I graduated high school," Lee told her. "My mom and dad weren't too keen on it at first, since they wanted me to help run the family business, but they eventually accepted me when they realized that I was old enough to make my own decisions."

A different waiter came by and placed the rolls, along with some butter, onto the table and left. They each took a roll and broke it in half. Lee continued the conversation. "So, I want to know about you. When did you become a reporter?"

"About four years ago." Carley answered as she took a bite out of the bread role shortly after. "Before that, I had a job as a waitress at a local bar, but it wasn't really my thing. My friend Steve told me about a job as a reporter and I decided to give it a try. At least I would know someone there."

"That sounds nice," Lee commented. "I guess part of the reason for becoming a teacher was to meet new people. I don't mind that most of the time."

"Sounds like a good enough reason to me." Carley replied before taking a sip of water. "Lee, not that I'm ungrateful or anything but what made you want to take me out to dinner?"

"I just thought it would be nice for us to get to know each other a bit more," Lee replied as he broke his roll into a smaller piece. "Our work can take up a bit of our time, you know? We don't get a chance to speak on weekdays."

"Really?" Carley grinned. "Well Lee, I can certainly say that I am enjoying myself so far."

A few minutes later, Shawn came by holding their tray of food. "Alright, I have lobster here, along with the herb chicken and pasta," he told them, setting the food down in front of them. "Enjoy."

"Thank you," Lee answered, and Carley nodded.

The two dug into their food but they would occasionally stop to speak to one another and get to know each other a little better.

"So, American history, huh?" Carley spoke out of the blue after she took a bite out of her lobster. "Sounds interesting."

"Yeah, even when I was a kid I was glued to it," Lee explained as he gathered a forkful of pasta. "Not exactly sure why. Anyway, what was college like for you? What did you study?"

"I studied a course in Art for a year and did learn to paint some pictures, but it wasn't really my dream. And after that, I took a two-year course in computing, but I was no good at it." Carley answered. "And believe it or not, Doug was there. What are the odds of being in the same neighborhood?"

"Maybe I can see some of your work sometime, if you've kept any of it?" Lee inquired. "And Doug. I bet he graduated with that major." He chuckled.

"I think he got that high that he probably skipped over a couple of grades." Carley chuckled. She remembered when she first met Doug again in their neighborhood and since then, they have become great friends. "Yeah, I kept a couple of more paintings. I'd be more than happy to show you."

"That'd be great," Lee responded. "So, anything else you'd like to share?"

"Well, this may sound a little silly, but when I was younger, I dreamed of becoming an actress." Carley admitted, keeping her voice down slightly to avoid the other people listening in, but it did not make a difference since they were strangers. "I guess I kind of came true. I am on TV."

"I guess dreams can come true in many different variations," Lee smirked, shrugging lightly. "When I was younger, my mom would play the tuba in my ear whenever I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. It always worked. I was never a morning person."

"Something we have in common." Carley grinned. "My younger sister use to wake me up in the morning by jumping on my bed. And if that didn't work, my mom would walk inside and whack a wooden spoon against a frying pan."

Lee couldn't help but laugh. "Seems like we both come from crazy families. To add on, I wasn't allowed to lock my door."

"I didn't even have a lock for my door." Carley replied before taking another bite of her lobster. "I tried putting a chair there once, but my sister decided to climb through my window. I knew I should have closed it."

"Siblings...you got to love 'em," Lee shook his head, thinking about his brother Blake. He grabbed another bread roll and spread some butter onto it.

Before long, the two of them had finished their dinner and were pretty full. They debated on getting dessert or not.

"You want dessert?" Lee offered. "We can share, if you'd like."

"Sounds good to me. I don't think I could eat one on my own." Carley agreed after cleaning her mouth with her napkin.

At that moment, Shawn returned and picked up their plates whilst asking if they were done with their meal or wanted further.

"We'll split a dessert, if that's all right," Lee responded. He turned to Carley. "Chocolate cake okay?"

"Sounds good to me." Carley answered.

Shawn wrote it down and walked off. The slice of cake didn't take long, and a few minutes later he placed it in front of them. "There you go. Enjoy."

"Thanks." Carley thanked and picked up one of the two spoons rested on the table.

The two began to take small pieces of their cake together until there was not a crumb left. Lee sighed and wiped his mouth with a different napkin, Carley did the same.

"Wow, this has turned out to be a romantic dinner." Carley admitted as she rubbed her hand against her stomach. "Thank you, Lee."

"Hey, it was no problem," Lee told her with a smile as he paid the bill, also leaving the tip despite Carley's offers. He stood up and walked to the other side of the booth, holding out his hand for Carley to take. She accepted and stood up, and the two began walking out of the restaurant.

"Have a nice night," Shawn waved them off.

"Thanks, you too," said Lee.

The two got back into Lee's car and checked the time to see it was 20:30 PM. Since their neighborhood was not too far away and they had Saturday coming up tomorrow, there was no reason to rush home. Instead, the two sat in silence and enjoyed the drive there.

When they made it back to their neighborhood, Lee pulled in front of Carley's home. Now it was time for the end of their date which Lee was glad it went well. He could have sworn at least one thing would have gone wrong.

Before Carley left the car, she leaned over towards Lee and shared a kiss with him on the lips for a couple of seconds. "Thanks for a great time, Lee. Give me a call sometime."

"Uhh...sure," Lee responded with a small grin, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Carley smiled at him and climbed out of the car. Lee made sure she got inside okay before heading home himself. He was grinning like an idiot as he pulled into his driveway a couple minutes later. He decided to tell Kenny what had gone on in the morning. After all, he had asked several times when he would get together with Carley.

Since it was Friday night, he had nothing better to do for a while and had no reason to stay up late. He decided to relax on his couch and switch on the TV for a while.

Lee ended up flipping channels until he eventually settled on the news. Nothing terrible or even remotely interesting was really going on, but for some reason he ended up watching it anyway.

As he was watching the news, the weather began to rain again and this time, quite heavily. It caused the signal on his TV to go out.

"Great," Lee muttered. He decided to just go to bed, knowing that the power would be back on in the morning. Plus, he always enjoyed falling asleep listening to the rain. As he drove off into a peaceful Lee, he could not help but feel that this date had gone perfect with no mistakes.

Just the way he wanted and in the future, he was definitely looking forward to more dates with Carley.

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><p><strong>And that brings us to the end of this chapter, folks. Lee and Carley's date turned out to be a successful one and I got the feeling they will continue dating in the future. Next chapter will be here this Saturday.<strong>


	8. Chapter 8: weekend guest

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 8: weekend guest**

**Hey everyone, Assassin here. Now I know this chapter was suppose to be out yesterday, but if I'm being honest, I got carried away playing a game and completely forgot. So this was my responsibility, not Writer's. Nevertheless, I'm sure you guys and gals didn't mind waiting an extra day, but don't worry because chapter 9 is going to be released tomorrow on Monday; everybody's favorite day of the week.**

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><p>Lee woke up the next morning to the sound of someone knocking his door. He got up and checked the time to see it was only 9:00 AM. He was only wearing a vest and a pair of boxers so he put on some tracksuit pants and went downstairs. He opened the door to see it was Ed.<p>

"Hey, Lee, sorry if I woke you." Ed replied whilst rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"Hey, Ed, how are you?" Lee greeted.

"I'm good. Um, listen, Diana's mother has been injured back in Florida and we have to go immediately. I was wondering...Could you watch, Clementine? Just until Monday morning?" Ed requested, his eyes practically begging. "I'm sorry to ask, but you're the only one in the neighborhood I'd trust to watch her and her usual babysitter is own spring break."

Lee had to think about it for a moment. It was only two days, but he did have to go into university on Monday to see the results of his student's exams. But that would only take an hour.

"I'll watch Clementine, she's a good kid," Lee nodded. "You want me to head there now? I'll have to get ready."

"That'd be great thanks. But if you don't mind, can Clementine stay in your house instead of ours?" Ed requested yet another favor. "It's a bit complicated to explain and we have to leave real soon."

"Of course, you can bring her whenever you're ready," Lee responded. "Tell her she can walk right in. And...I hope Diana's mother is okay."

"Thanks Lee, we really appreciate this and we'll make it up to you someday." Ed expressed his gratitude before he had to run back to his house.

Lee nodded and went to go and get dressed. He was glad he had that guest room when he moved it and decided to keep it. At first, he was considering changing it into a private bar.

As he was tying his shoes, he heard the door open and close, and Clementine calling his name. Lee walked downstairs and saw her standing by the kitchen bar, holding a small duffle bag for the weekend.

"Hey, Clem," he greeted with a small smile.

"Hey, Lee." she greeted in return, but she looked somewhat sad, more than likely because of her grandmother being ill.

Lee understood of this and decided not to prod the little girl with any unnecessary questions. It wasn't his business, after all. "Uhh, you can put your stuff down anywhere."

"Okay." Clementine replied as she proceeded into the living room. This was the first time she had ever been inside Lee's home and she decided to admire the place whilst she was in her. "Nice house."

"Thanks, Kenny pointed it out," Lee told her.

Clementine made her way upstairs to set her stuff down inside the guest room that Lee pointed out. A moment later, she returned downstairs and sat down on the same couch as Lee, sitting in silence for a moment or two. "Do you have any breakfast? I'm kind of hungry."

"Sure. I'm a bit hungry myself," Lee responded, standing up. "How about some blueberry pancakes?"

"Sounds good." Clementine agreed as she followed him into the kitchen. "Do you need any help?"

"If you could set the table for me, that would be good," Lee instructed. "The plates and glasses are in the cabinet by the fridge, and silverware is in the drawer right beneath it."

"Uh, huh." Clementine noted everything he said and got out two plates, two forks and two knives and set them down on the table.

"Thanks, Clementine," Lee thanked as he stirred the pancake batter.

It did not take long for Lee to make breakfast for himself and Clementine. When he flipped one of the pancakes, he somehow ended up flipping it into the air. But luckily, Clementine was able to catch her breakfast with her plate. That's what you call fast food.

While they were eating, Lee decided to make small talk with Clementine to help try and take her mind off of her family's situation. "So Clementine, how was the last day of school? It was Thursday, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was Thursday." Clementine answered whilst she cut up her pancake using a knife and fork. "I got my results for my exams on the last day. I got a C for my Maths and a D for my English."

"Hey, you did the best you could, Clem," Lee tried to reassure her when he saw her slightly disappointed face. "That's what I would encourage my students to do. Try your best."

"I know." Clementine agreed. She wanted to get at least a B for one of her exams, but Lee made a good point. "Well, I got a whole summer until I go back to school."

"Now that's something to look forward to," Lee noted as he took a sip of orange juice. "I have to go to the university on Monday to collect my students' results, and then I'll be off too."

"What are your students like?" Clementine inquired after she took a bite out of her pancake. "I guess they're not immature kids, right? Well, maybe."

"Most of them are okay, it's the afternoon class that can get a bit rowdy," Lee replied. "Oh, sure, there are still some cliques that go around, such as greasers or socials. But after nearly six years as a teacher, I'm used to that."

"Sounds...Like a good job, I guess." Clementine agreed. She was not exactly making conversation with Lee at the moment. Unless they were going to be in silence for two days, she better find something interesting to say.

Lee also realized that this was basically his first time with Clementine alone. "So-o-o-o...anything else new, Clem?"

"Doug upgraded my cellphone." Clementine responded out of the blue. "It was going really slow and my messages took forever to send. Doug made it much faster. I like him."

"Yeah, he's a good guy," Lee agreed as he poured some more syrup over his pancakes. "He fixed my laptop the other day too."

Before long, the two of them finished breakfast and decided to go around Kenny's house together. Clementine did not mind going to Kenny's house for a while, even though she sometimes found Duck a little bit annoying, but he was one of her closest friends.

The two of them walked across the street, and Clementine was the one to ring the doorbell. The door opened, and Kenny was a bit surprised to see Lee and Clem together.

"Well hey, y'all," he greeted. "You two decide to walk together?"

"Her parents wanted me to watch her for the weekend," Lee told him, placing a hand on Clementine back. "Thought we might drop by for a few."

"Okay, well, come in," Kenny offered, holding the door open for them. Clementine looked around, fascinated by some of the fish heads and paintings on the walls of the living room.

As the two proceeded into the living room, a happy Sam ran towards Clementine and jumped up towards her, licking her face happily.

"Sam." Clementine chuckled as she was attacked by dog kisses. She patted his head a couple of times to calm him down before she and Lee took a seat on Kenny's couch. Katjaa and Duck were not present at that moment. Sam stood in front of Clementine, his tongue happily going up and down.

"Alright, Sam, sit down!" Kenny commanded. The dog immediately stopped licking Clementine and sat down in front of her. "Good boy." He looked at Clementine. "Sorry, Clem, he gets a little overexcited sometimes. I think Duck may have had somethin' to do with that..."

"It's okay. I like him, he's a good dog." Clementine replied with a smile as she held her hand towards Sam. The dog understood what she meant and held his paw up, shaking hands with her. "Good boy."

"Looks like he's being trained," Lee commented, patting Sam on the head.

"Yeah, Katjaa's hoping he'll stop being so rowdy once we really get there," said Kenny. "So, anyone want a drink?"

"I'm good, thanks," Lee responded.

"What do you have to drink?" Clementine kindly inquired. She was feeling a little thirty and could do with something to wash those pancakes down.

"We got milk, water, cola, beer, although it probably ain't a good idea for you to have that," Kenny replied with a chuckle.

"No kidding." Clementine agreed. She remembered once when she tried her uncle's beer when he was not looking and she did not enjoy it one bit. "Can I just have some milk, please?"

Kenny nodded and went into the kitchen, coming back a moment later with a glass of milk, handing it to Clem. Clementine thanked him and took a drink.

"So, where are Katjaa and Duck? The house is too quiet," Lee smirked.

"Katjaa had to take a morning shift at the vet, and Duck's playing with some friend of his, Toby I think," Kenny explained.

"Work on a Saturday?" Clementine questioned as she took another sip of milk. Her parents had important jobs and she could not recall them ever having to go into work on a Saturday.

"Today was supposed to be her day off, but she got called in," Kenny grunted.

"Oh." Clementine nodded and decided not to question about it further. She drank her milk in silence when Lee began to speak up.

"Anything planned for today?" Lee inquired as he continued to pet Sat, who was now lying on the floor in front of him.

"Nothin' really," Kenny shrugged. "Still looking forward to that trip to Macon. Will be nice to go somewhere other than Memphis for a change."

"I'm glad Lilly and her dad isn't going with us." Clementine spoke up. She remembered the once when she witnessed Larry and another neighbor almost got into a fist fast. She did not mind Lilly that much though.

"Has she accused anyone in your family of slashing her tires?" Lee wanted to know.

"She didn't accuse us, but she did want to know if we knew or had any idea who did it." Clementine replied.

"Well, you're lucky then. The night after Sam jumped on Lee while walking she called up on my cell and started screaming at me," Kenny rolled his eyes. "We had a shoutin' match over the phone for seven minutes until Katjaa got sick of it."

"Why is she like that?" Clementine wondered. "When I was only eight-years-old, Lilly use to be a nice lady, the same as the rest of us. I wish she was still like that now."

"Carlos said Larry has some kind of heart condition, so it could be that," Kenny shrugged.

"Maybe." Clementine replied, patting Sam a couple of more times when he sat down in front of her.

Lee shrugged, remembering a couple weeks back when an ambulance had to be called for Larry.

Before long, Lee decided to tell Kenny about his date with Carley last night. He did not mind if Clementine heard it, too.

"So...last night..." Lee hesitated briefly. "I finally went on a date with Carley."

Kenny raised his eyebrows, his interest peaked. "Go on..."

"We went to that new Italian restaurant downtown, just talked about ourselves, I guess...our lives." Lee didn't exactly know how to word it.

"It sounds like you both had a great time." Clementine spoke up with a small smile. She always had the feeling Lee and Carley would one day maybe get together.

Lee smiled back at her. "Yeah, we did. It went well, I may call her again."

"Well, congrats, pal!" Kenny praised. "Always knew you would move on eventually."

Before long had passed, Lee and Clementine eventually decided to leave Kenny's house and allow him to enjoy his weekend when his family returned. As Lee stepped out his house, his mobile phone began to vibrate inside of his pocket.

Lee picked up his phone and saw that it was Carlos, and answered it. "Hello?"

_"Hello, Lee, it's Carlos."_ Carlos greeted on the other end of the line._ "Since it's the weekend and you've invited us to your trip, my wife and I were wondering if you would like to come to dinner this afternoon?"_

Lee thought about it for a moment and thought it was a great idea to further bond with the Hidalgo family, but what about Clementine? He did not wish to leave her with someone else when he promised Ed he would take her of her. Maybe he could bring her with him.

"Sure, that'd be nice," Lee nodded. "But I'm watching Clementine this weekend while her parents are away. Is it okay if I bring her too?"

_"Of course."_ Carlos replied, causing a sigh of relief to Lee. _"Come around to our house at five PM. We'll see you then."_

"Alright, bye," Lee hung up and looked down at Clementine. "We're going to the Hidalgo's house to eat dinner tonight. That alright with you?" They began walking back to Lee's house.

"Sure." Clementine nodded. "Sarah's one of my closest friends, even though she's in a different grade to me."

"Hey, at least you won't feel left out then," Lee told her as he unlocked the door to the house. "So, anything you want to do for now?"

"Mind if I watch TV?" Clementine replied as they stepped inside Lee's house.

"Sure, the remote's on the coffee table," Lee responded. He opened up his laptop and decided to see if he'd received any e-mails from his supervisor yet. Clementine turned on the television to some random cartoon.

Lee spotted an email from his supervisor but it was just a reminder to come in on Monday. He checked through the rest of his emails but most of them were just advertisements.

At one point, Diana called Clementine on her cell phone to check in on things, and she said that things were okay and that they were going to "Sarah's house" for dinner that night. When she hung up, Lee spoke to her.

"How are they?" he inquired.

"They're doing well." Clementine answered as she placed her cellphone back into her pocket. "My mom told me grandma's doing better. She's in hospital in stable condition for now."

"That's good to hear, I'm glad she'll be okay," Lee smiled.

"Me, too. I was worried." Clementine admitted. Lee was about to say something, but he decided to leave her alone for a while and allowed her to watch TV in peace.

Lee checked a few more things on the computer before he decided to watch a little TV with Clem. Before they knew it, it was nearly 4:30 PM. He decided to just chill for a while until it was time to head to Carlos' for dinner.

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><p><strong>And that brings us to the end of this chapter, folks. I had the feeling some of you would like to see Lee and Clementine together like they are in the game. Now, with that said and done, chapter 9 coming tomorrow, folks.<strong>


	9. Chapter 9: dinner at the Hidalgo's

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 9: dinner at the Hidalgo's**

**What up, everyone, just us here to deliver another chapter as promised yesterday. Now I know a lot of people hate Mondays, but you have to look on the positive side: it's over and only four more days to go! Anyway, here's chapter 9, ladies and gentlemen. While you guys read, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.**

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><p>Time had certainly slipped away fast. They were expected to turn up at Carlos' house at five. Lee didn't think it was necessary to get dressed up just to go to someone's house for dinner, he decided to just stay in his clothes: a blue t-shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans. He turned towards Clementine and she looked okay in her purple longed sleeve shirt and grey pants.<p>

"You ready to leave soon?" he inquired.

"Whenever you are." Clementine replied with a slight shrug.

They decided to wait a few more minutes before leaving. Lee placed the keys into his pocket and walked with Clem, there was no need to drive since Carlos and his family only lived about a block away.

"So, have long have you known Carlos, Astrid and Sarah?" Clementine inquired as they walked down the path, trying to make conversation between them.

"I first met them a few days after moving in, on my way to the store, so I've known them a little while," Lee remembered. They had only spoken briefly the first time, but Lee could tell that they were a good family. "I invited them on the trip with us."

"That's good." Clementine agreed.

The two continued walking until they noticed one of their neighbors Mark cutting his lawn on the other side of the street. He noticed them and gave them a wave to which they both returned.

A couple of minutes later, they reached Carlos's house. Clementine rang the doorbell, and the door was answered by Astrid.

"Lee, Clementine, we're glad you both could make it." Astrid greeted as she held the door open for them and allowed them to walk inside. "Please make yourselves at home. Dinner will be done soon."

"Thank you, Astrid," Lee smiled lightly, and he and Clementine stepped inside.

Sarah was seated in the armchair in the living room, and stood up when she noticed the guests. "Hi, Clem! Hi, Lee!" she greeted excitedly, a wide smile on her face.

"Hey Sarah." Clementine greeted as she and Lee took a seat on the couch. The family was watching a movie called Rio 2.

Carlos emerged from the kitchen and smiled slightly which was quite rare to see. But he was a great father and husband nevertheless. "Lee, Clementine, thank you for coming to dinner."

"No problem, man. It'll be nice getting to know some of the neighbors before going on this trip," Lee responded. "Thanks for inviting us."

"Of course." Carlos nodded as he and his wife made their way back into the kitchen to finish dinner. "Would you both like something to drink?"

"Just some water for me thanks." Clementine requested.

"I'll have some too," Lee nodded.

Carlos nodded and went into the kitchen, returning with two bottles of water.

"Thank you," Lee said.

Since it could be a little while until dinner was ready, Clementine made conversation with her older friend. "Did you get your exam results, Sarah?"

"I got a C in math and a B in English and an A in science because my mom helped me," Sarah explained with a smile. "I can't wait to have her for science next year!"

Astrid was a sophomore and junior year science teacher at Sarah's high school, Booker T. Washington High.

"Nice job. I got a C in Maths and D in English." Clementine replied but she remembered Lee's words that taught her to be proud of what she accomplished.

"At least you passed too!" Sarah tried to cheer her up, and luckily it got a smile out of her younger friend.

"It must be nice having your mom as a teacher, Sarah, you must get a lot of extra help," Lee pointed out.

Sarah nodded gleefully. "Yeah! I never had to go to tutoring after school because Mom helps me here, when she's home."

"Sounds like a lucky break." Clementine replied after she took a sip of water. "Did you know Lee's a teacher?"

Sarah cocked her head to the side. "Really? Where do you teach, Lee? I don't see you at my school."

"I teach up at UGA," Lee explained. "I teach history and some writing."

"Ohh, cool!" Sarah exclaimed.

Then, the family's gray cat, Pepper, approached Lee and Clementine and jumped in between them. Clementine began stroking her fur. In the kitchen, Lee could see Carlos setting the table for five and Astrid finishing up dinner.

Lee was unaware that they owned a cat but he did not say anything.

"Dinner's ready!" Astrid called out from the kitchen.

So Lee, Clementine, and Sarah got up from their spots and headed into the kitchen where Carlos and Astrid were already seated.

"May we say grace?" Astrid requested. "Carlos, did the honors please."

Carlos nodded as everyone held hands, closed their eyes and lowered their heads. "Dear Lord, we are grateful for this food we are about to receive and we thank you for everything we have been blessed with. Amen."

"Amen," everyone else replied, and got to serving themselves. The dinner consisted of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and garlic bread.

A perfect meal and Lee and Clementine were honored to be here with this family.

"This food is delicious, Astrid." Clementine complimented whilst cutting up some meat with a knife and fork.

"Why thank you, Clementine." Astrid smiled.

"How's the hospital going, Carlos?" Lee inquired as he served himself some potatoes.

"Things are going well." Carlos replied after he took a bite out of his mashed potatoes. "There's a chance I could be promoted soon."

"That's nice, seems like things are going pretty well around here," Lee commented.

Yes, very well." Astrid agreed before resuming her dinner. "So how's the university, Lee? Are you glad to be off?"

"Definitely, after I get the results on Monday," Lee responded. "What about you?"

"I'm glad to be away, too." Astrid replied as she drank a sip of water. "And when I go back, I'm going to have Sarah in my classroom."

Sarah smiled slightly in response whilst eating her dinner.

"I'm going to be a sophomore," Sarah announced. "What grade will you be in, Clementine?" Clem had only just begun middle school, so she and Sarah didn't go to the same school. But it didn't hurt to ask.

"I'm going to be starting sixth grade." Clementine answered.

"Oh, cool!" Sarah exclaimed, giving Clementine a smile. "So you won't be in elementary school anymore."

"Yep." Clementine nodded. However, she did feel a little nervous about starting in a new school.

Many random conversations took place as the five people continued to eat dinner, such as the trip to Macon and other summer plans. Astrid mentioned that she'd seen a few pictures of the Cherry Blossom festival and was looking forward to seeing it in person.

After a little while had passed, everyone finished their dinner and was stuffed. They could not eat another bite if they wanted to. Carlos and Astrid were certainly good cooks.

"Thank you for dinner, it was delicious," Lee said appreciatively. Clementine nodded in agreement.

"You're welcome." Carlos nodded as he and his wife picked up their plates and proceeded to go and wash them.

Clementine went into the living room to talk with Sarah for a few minutes before they had to leave. Soon, goodbyes were said, and Clem and Lee began their walk home. It was nearly dark out.

"So, was that your first time at their house, or have you been there before?" Lee inquired.

"I've been there before." Clementine replied. "My parents and I went there when Carlos invited us over and I sometimes went there just to hang around with Sarah."

"Ah, cool. She's a nice girl," Lee commented as the two turned the corner. They noticed Duck and his friend from earlier tossing a football in the former's front yard with Kenny keeping an eye. He waved, and Lee and Clementine waved back. Lee unlocked the door to his house and escorted Clementine inside.

"So, what do you do on a Saturday?" Clementine inquired as she took off her shoes and left them near the door. She took seat on Lee's couch.

Lee shrugged. "Depends, really," he responded. "Maybe watch a movie or a show, or read whenever I feel like it. I don't go out too much. What about you, Clem?"

"I don't mind." Clementine replied, followed by a shrug.

Lee turned on the television and flipped it to some random movie.

"So, do you play video games?" Clementine asked as they both sat back and watched the movie.

"I have a Wii, but I haven't used it much lately," Lee responded. "I have some controllers and a few games."

"Me and my dad have a Wii, too." Clementine replied as she leaned back with her arms crossed. "We usually play the Mario games together."

"Then how about some Mario Kart?" Lee smirked. "My brother Blake always gets upset when I beat him."

"I've never played, but sure, let's play." Clementine replied with a small grin.

Lee went to fetch his Wii and set it up on the TV, handing Clementine a car wheel Wii controller as he held his own.

"Hold it like this," Lee instructed, holding his controller horizontally. Clementine obliged. "To accelerate, you press the 2 on the far right..." He instructed her on all of the other actions, and soon it was time to play. Lee decided to play as Waluigi, while Clementine played as Toadette.

The game was going quite well and they both had some laughs playing it. Lee somehow ended up getting stuck once or twice, but he was still determined to win the race.

"Oh, Lee." Clementine pressed a button on her pad that caused Lee to panic when he spotted a red shell coming straight for him.

"No, no, no...DAMN IT!" Lee cried, the red shell hitting his character right as he was about to cross the finish line. Clementine laughed and zoomed Toadette across, making her win first place. A few more characters passed by as well.

"That was for hitting me with a fireball." Clementine said in between laughs.

"Okay, sport-o, you wanna pick the next race since you won?" Lee asked between his own fits of laughter.

"Sure." Clementine replied as she selected the next race.

As they were halfway through their next race, Lee had three bananas around his characters and noticed Clementine was not far behind him and was coming quite close. He grinned and thought it was time for some payback.

Lee snickered. "Hey Clem, I have a little surprise for you..." He pressed the button and unleashed one of the bananas, causing Clementine's character to spin out. Clementine let out a dramatic gasp and shot him a look that said, "Oh, it's on."

When Clementine got another power up, it revealed to be a green shell. She threw it towards Lee and it missed, causing him to chuckle. But when he was not paying attention, the green shell bounced back off the wall and hit Lee's character.

"No!" Lee yelled. He grumbled, but not angrily. He got another item box and saw that it was a blue shell. And Clementine happened to be in first. This was the perfect moment. "Clementine, guess what?" He threw the blue shell.

"What?" Clementine spotted the blue shell coming and quickly attempted to dodge it, but the blue shell hit her and halted her in her tracks.

Lee laughed and waved while passing and eventually crossing the finish line for first. Clementine grumbled and eventually got fourth place, letting out a low growl, hungry for revenge.

"Well, well, looks like we're on the last race for this round." Clementine stated as she got a better grip on her controller and prepared to beat Lee in the final match. He was in the lead so far and was two coins ahead of her.

"Bring it on," Lee teased, picking the final race since he'd won. He picked the hardest one: Bowser's Castle.

The race began and Lee's characters zoomed past the others, Clementine following closely. He already picked up a power up and got a mushroom, allowing him to boost away from the other races.

Lee tried to get one of the power-up boxes but missed by mere inches. Clementine giggled as he got her own, knowing that her chance to beat Lee was coming up. And lo and behold, she got a fireball.

"Lee, have you ever heard that song? Burn Baby, Burn?" Clementine asked.

Lee didn't get a chance to answer as Clementine hurled her fireball at him, causing his character on the screen to spin out and burn. He let out a gasp and glanced at Clementine. "Oh, you'll pay for that!"

"I don't think so!" Clementine replied as she zoomed past Lee, her character waving farewell to him.

Lee finally got an item box and was hoping for a red shell, but unfortunately, he ended up getting a green shell. Too bad he ended up just barely missing Clementine, and the little girl laughed as she crossed the finish line, cheering as she was crowned first place winner. Lee thrust his controller on the couch, accepting defeat. Clementine pointed and laughed, sticking her tongue out.

"I won the trophy and you came second." Clementine teased in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, yeah," Lee rolled his eyes playfully.

"That was fun though. Thank you, Lee." Clementine thanked as she hugged him for just a few seconds as a way of thanking him.

Lee was a bit surprised, but returned her hug and patted her on the back. "No problem, Clem." They let go after a few seconds. "So, now what?"

"So, what kind of movies you into?" Clementine inquired, deciding to make conversation between them both.

"There are some history movies that Omid got me into, but I also like horror and sci-fi too," Lee responded. "I have a few of those that you might like, unless there's something you want to watch?"

"No, I'm good, I was just asking." Clementine replied. Since they were on the subject, she decided to answer her type of movies too. "I like family movies, romance, a little bit of sci-fi, and animations."

"Heh, I had to deal with a lot of romance movies when I was a kid, my parents were always watching one," Lee couldn't help but smile. "What's your favorite movie, Clem?"

"Umm." Clementine had to think about that for a moment. She turned away and tried to make her choice, but she could not think of one. "I'm not sure what my favorite movie is, I like a lot of them."

"I do too," Lee nodded in agreement. He noticed that Clementine was looking a bit tired, as it was nearly 11:00 PM, and trying to stay up.

"I think I'm going to head to bed now." Clementine announced as she stood up and proceeded towards the stairs. Lee had already showed her where the guest bedroom was. "Goodnight, Lee."

Lee nodded. "Goodnight, Clementine."

Clementine walked up the stairs to her guest bedroom. Lee decided to stay up and watch a little TV on low volume for an hour before deciding to head to bed himself. While watching the TV in silence, he thought about today's events and he had to admit that he enjoyed spending time with Clementine. His ex-wife never wanted to have children, but now he was free of her and could do what he wished. He hoped one day he could have children of his own.

As the time reached midnight, Lee turned off the TV and proceeded upstairs to his own bedroom, carefully tip-toeing past Clementine's room to avoid waking the young girl up. He climbed into bed and drifted away for the night.

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><p><strong>That's the end of this chapter, folks. Next chapter would be here either Wednesday or Thursday. We'll have to wait and see as I have a busy week starting today, but I'll see what I can do. Wish me luck and don't forget to leave us some feedback.<strong>


	10. Chapter 10: Trip to Macon

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 10: Trip to Macon  
><strong>

**Hey everyone, only us to bring you another chapter for the day. I did want to update yesterday but duty calls and it was really important things that had to finish to help me with my future. Anyway, here I bring you chapter 10. Without further or do, enjoy reading.**

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><p>Clementine had a nice time at Lee's house, and Ed and Diana returned from Florida just as they said they would, letting them know that Clem's grandmother was going to be just fine as long as she took it easy and got some rest. Lee immediately agreed when Diana asked if he would watch Clementine next time, he enjoyed spending time with her.<p>

A few minutes after Clementine returned home, Lee got himself ready to go to the university to gather his students' results. He hoped that at least most of them did well. He wasn't expecting a 100% from everyone, but it didn't hurt to hope.

As he pulled into the college, he noticed Walter's partner Matthew was sitting in a car, tapping the wheel a couple of times to prevent himself from getting bored. Lee decided to go and say hello before he went into the university.

Matthew noticed him and rolled down the window. He had only met Lee a couple of times, but seemed to like him.

"Hey, Matt, how's it going?" he greeted.

"Hey Lee, things are great, thanks." Matthew replied whilst he leaned back in his car with his arms crossed. "Walter forgot to get gas for his car and I had to drop him off and give him a lift back. I got nothing better to do in the summer anyway."

"He mentioned that you two were going to that ski lodge in Virginia," Lee pointed out. "Not for a while, huh?"

"In a couple of weeks." Matthew answered. "In the meantime, we're going to be busy until then."

"What will you be doing?" Lee inquired.

"Getting some skiing equipment, going to see our families, renew our memberships, etcetera." Matthew began to go onto the details. "Well, I better not keep you waiting. I hope your students got good grades."

"I hope so too, I'll see you around, Matthew," Lee waved, and went inside. He noticed Walter just coming outside with his papers and the two gave each other a nod. Lee knocked on the door and when he was allowed access, he walked into his supervisor's office.

"Hello Professor Everett." he greeted and beckoned for Lee to take a seat in his office. "I take it you're here to collect your student's grade results?"

"Yes, sir," Lee nodded, and sat down in the chair offered to him. "How did they do?"

"Well, I can certainly say that they have improved much more since last year." Lee's supervisor replied in a relieved and proud tone. He handed the results to Lee for him to witness it with his own eyes. "Most of them got B's and C's, some of them even got A's."

"Wow, I guess they have been paying attention," Lee commented in a surprised voice. He took the results and read them for himself. He was surprised that the Russian student, Arvo, had managed to get a B, considering that his English still wasn't all that great.

"Congratulations on getting your students to this level, Professor Everett." the supervisor congratulated. "You're free to go when you please."

"Thank you, sir," Lee stood up and shook the supervisor's hand. "Have a good summer."

He walked out with his papers in hand and began his drive home. He needed to plan out the neighborhood trip to Macon, and decided that he would start that once he arrived home.

First thing he needed to do was organize a bus to take them all there and back. His father had already sorted out rooms for them and he would need to take lunch for them since Macon could be quite a distance away.

Once he arrived home, he logged onto his laptop and looked up buses for available for rent on the few days that he and the group of people would be in Macon. His parents and brother had chipped in to help pay.

He found one that looked fairly cheap and had the right amount of spaces needed for everyone coming in the neighborhood.

The bus was settled; it would come and pick everyone up at 11:00 AM in the morning at the end of the neighborhood, so no one would have to walk far. He decided to go shopping for sandwich ingredients later, but he knew he would have to call or text around to ask what people liked on them.

After organized food with his neighbors, there was nothing else to do. For the next few days, he decided to just enjoy the rest of following days until the day came when they would go to Macon. It sounded like it was going to be great and Lee could not wait.

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><p><em>Two weeks later<em>

Two weeks had passed during the summer holiday and today was the day everyone was going to Macon for the Festival. Lee woke up nice and early to get dressed, pack a couple of clothes and went to join the rest of the neighbors at the end of the neighborhood. The time was now 10:39 AM, and much to Lee's relief, everyone was there. But just to be certain, he did bring a list with him.

"Hey, Lee," Kenny was the first to greet him. Katjaa was trying to calm an overexcited Duck, who was bouncing up and down joyfully, as he was happy to get out of Atlanta.

"Hey," Lee nodded. He took notice of everyone there, and was able to read the list despite all the chatter.

Carley stepped forward out of the crowd and greeted Lee with a peck on the cheek. "Hey, Lee. Today's the day."

"Sure is," Lee agreed. In the corner of his eye, he could see Clementine standing in front of her parents, watching him with a wide smile on her face. He checked his watch, 10:40 AM. "The bus should be here in twenty minutes."

"I'm sure we can wait until then." Carley replied, placing her hands into her jacket pocket.

Lee nodded but he decided to talk to a few of the neighbors. First he decided to talk to Carlos, Astrid and Sarah who were all standing nearby.

"Hey, you all excited?" Lee greeted.

"Yeah!" Sarah exclaimed, while Carlos and Astrid nodded.

Lee nodded before proceeded over towards Omid and Christa who were speaking together. Omid looked a little more excited than per usual whilst Christa merely sighed and went along with it.

Omid turned around when he noticed their friend approaching and greeted him. "Hey, Lee, we're really excited for this trip."

"That's great to hear, mind if I ask what you did with Whiskers?" Lee inquired.

"We dropped him off at my parents." Omid replied, but he looked a little sad. "I'm going to miss the little guy."

"It's only for a few days, the cat will be fine," Christa assured. Clearly she wasn't as attached to Whiskers as Omid was.

Lee smiled lightly at them and walked off. He next went to check on Alvin and Rebecca, with little AJ in Rebecca's arms. "He's getting big," Lee commented, referring to the baby.

"Oh, hey, Lee." Alvin greeted in a kind tone.

"Thanks for inviting us to this trip, Lee." Rebecca thanked whilst she gently rocked AJ side-to-side.

"No problem. I don't think we've really spent much time together, so I figured why not, you know?"

"A good enough reason for me." Rebecca replied with a smile whilst she eyed her baby carefully. AJ was too busy playing with Rebecca's fingers like a toy.

Lee walked off, talking to a few more people before the bus finally arrived. He decided to let everyone climb on board first before getting on himself, checking off the bus on his list.

"I figure we got about two or three hours before we reach Macon, then we can settle into the motel and maybe look around a bit," he announced to everyone before taking his seat next to Carley.

"Sounds like a good enough plan for me." Pete replied as he got into his own seat behind Luke and Nick.

In the seat next to them, Lee noticed Mike and Bonnie talking...and maybe even flirting? He didn't know, but he could sure hear Clementine and Sarah whispering to each other and giggling about it in the seat behind him.

Nearby, Lee noticed Ben and his little sister Katie sitting together whilst Ben's parents sat behind them. Katie was a little bit like Duck: talking too much, but Ben didn't seem to mind that much.

"So, are you looking forward to this?" Lee asked of Carley, who was staring out the window until he spoke to her.

"Definitely." Carley nodded. "I've been looking forward for this trip since you told me. And it's going to be nice to see your family again."

"Yeah, they've been asking about you," Lee replied. "I still need to tell them about our date, though."

"I got no problem with that." Carley replied as she leaned back in her chair and decided to relax and enjoy the ride there.

The sandwiches were distributed to everyone about an hour into the trip. They came in Ziploc bags, and Lee had written the names of who got what sandwich. Except for AJ, who was obviously still too young for solid food.

"Thanks Lee." Omid thanked and practically dug into his sandwich like he had not eaten for a week.

Christa merely stared towards him and gave him a look that said "Where are your manners?"

"What?" Omid mumbled after he took another bite of his sandwich.

"Never mind," Christa rolled her eyes as she took a much smaller bite of her own sandwich.

"Where did you get the sandwiches?" Carley inquired after she took a bite out of her own cheese sandwich.

"I asked around what everybody liked, and spent an hour yesterday making them," Lee responded. "Wasn't hard to get the ingredients."

Carley seemed satisfied with that answer and continued to eat her food in silence.

A couple of rows down, Kenny and Duck were playing a game on Kenny's phone together to entertain themselves for a while. Katjaa was sitting behind them with Mark.

Nick began to tap his hands against knees before he began whistling. He got bored really easily.

The only two times the bus ride was ever really loud was when AJ cried, and he was luckily calmed down quickly. Most of the time everyone seemed to be doing their own thing aside from the few people talking to each other.

Clementine looked out of the window and noticed a sign on the highway that said Macon along with an arrow and the number of miles to go. "Hey, Sarah, I think we're halfway there."

"I can't wait to get there," the older girl looked up from her book and smiled at Clementine. "I don't think I've ever been."

"You'll like Macon, it's a nice town." Clementine assured as she brought back her memory for a moment. "And you'll definitely like Lee's family."

"I hope so," Sarah responded. "My mom showed me some pictures of the cherry blossoms. They're really pretty!"

On another part of the bus, Christa and Omid were having a humorous argument. "We're not calling our baby Omid!" Christa retorted, slapping his hand away playfully. She happened to be two months pregnant, but only Omid knew this.

"Oh, come on." Omid tried to persuade her to change her mind. "I'm being serious about little Omid's future."

"And what if it's a girl?" Christa wanted to know, crossing her arms. A smirk played across her lips.

"Then I take little Christa's future serious." Omid answered.

"We're not naming her Christa, that's my name." Christa disagreed.

"Exactly." Omid grinned. He clearly was not going to give up. "We want your legacy to continue."

"Omid, stop it!" Christa laughed, swatting her boyfriend playfully.

"Stop what?" Omid pretended like he did not know what she meant by this. He continued trying to convince Christa to name their baby after them.

It would not take the rest of the group long to reach Macon now that they were more than halfway there. Everyone was looking forward to arriving in Macon and Lee had the feeling all this was going to turn out great.

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><p><strong>And...That brings us to the end of chapter 10, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, guys and gals. Chapter 11 will be here shortly, and in the meantime, stay tuned.<strong>


	11. Chapter 11: settling into Macon

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 11: settling into Macon  
><strong>

**Hey everyone, _Assassin's Creed Master_ here. Now I was going to update on Saturday but the servers for FanFiction were down and I was too busy to update yesterday, but hey, it's Monday; everybody's favorite day of the week as I like to see and here's a longer chapter for you fellow readers to read. **

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><p>It was nearly 2:30 PM in the afternoon when the large bus pulled into its destination, Macon, in front of Everett's pharmacy. Everyone was very eager to get off the bus since some of them (particularly Duck and Katie) were a little restless.<p>

"Wow, just as I remembered." Ed spoke up as he placed his hands to his hips and admired the town.

"Hmm, it's a peaceful town. I like that." Carlos replied whilst looking around the area. Astrid and Sarah stood beside him, carrying a couple of their bags.

Lee stepped forward in front of the group once all of them had their bags and announced his family's drugstore behind them.

"Since this was partially their idea, I want to introduce you all to my family," Lee announced. "Some of you may know them already, but they're looking forward to meeting more people."

Lee opened the door and led the group of twenty-five into the store. John was a little surprised since he wasn't expecting them until later, and stepped up, calling Katharine and Blake into the room.

"Katharine, Blake, Lee and his friends are here." John called out as he and Lee shared a hug for a moment. "Good to see you, Lee." he leaned up and noticed a few unfamiliar faces. "And I see we've got some new faces."

"Yeah, you remember Clementine, Ed, Diana, Kenny and his family, and Carley and Doug, right?" Lee inquired, and his father nodded. He began introducing everyone right as his mother and brother walked out. "There's Mark, Bonnie, Mike, Terrance and his wife Laura, and their kids Ben and Katie, Carlos and Astrid and their daughter Sarah, Alvin, Rebecca, and their son AJ, and Luke and Nick and his uncle Pete."

"It's great to meet you all," Katharine greeted with a smile. "My name is Katharine Everett, and that's my husband John and our other son Blake. We hope you enjoy it here."

"Thank you." Carlos nodded. "We appreciate you inviting us."

"No problem." John replied with a small smile. "Now if you all want to head down the road and follow Lee, he'll escort you to the motel you'll be staying at."

Lee bade his family good-bye for the time being and led his friends to the Travelier Motel, which was about a half a mile down the road. He checked in and gave everyone their room keys.

Once everyone had settled into their rooms, Lee decided to take half the group for a tour around Macon whilst the other half decided to stay for a while. He waited just outside the motel until Carlos, Astrid, Sarah, Ben and his family, Mark, Luke, Nick, Pete, Bonnie and Mike showed up.

It only took about five minutes for them to show up, and Lee placed his hands in his pockets.

"Okay, everybody ready?" he inquired.

After a chorus of "Yes," he took the lead, everyone exiting the hotel.

Lee first decided to show them were the festival was going to take place. They were still setting up the area and would be done on time when the festival came in.

"It'll be here tomorrow, but here's where the festival will be," Lee explained as he pointed at the large area. The cherry blossoms were already in full bloom, allowing the group to take it all in. There was a big stage and some booths being set up all around.

"I want to get my face painted!" Katie shouted.

"Think there'll be any pawn businesses?" Luke nudged Nick in a teasing voice.

"Mom, Dad, look at the cherry blossoms! They're even prettier in person!" Sarah exclaimed.

"That they do, Sarah." Astrid agreed with a small smile across her face.

"Wow, those cherry blossoms sure are beautiful." Bonnie complimented, admiring the trees as she placed her hands to her hips. As a gardener, of course she would find them amazing. "Wish we had those back home."

"What did you two just say?" Pete asked Nick and Luke with a grin across his face, but the two pretended they had no idea what he was talking about.

Nick jammed his fists into his pockets and began to whistle a random tune innocently.

"Moving on now," Lee announced with a smirk, satisfied that this half of the group seemed to like Macon so far. They passed the festival and went to their next destination.

The next destination was the local town where there were a few people walking around besides homes, a local diner, and a couple of shopping stores.

"I think we could get some souvenirs around here," Ben's mother, Laura, commented as she held Katie's hand.

"And some vacation shirts." Carlos added as he looked through one of the store's windows to see some of the shirts on display.

"Maybe everyone can get a shirt, and on the last day we can take a picture with everyone in it wearing them," Luke suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea," Lee nodded as they continued on the sidewalk. There were some more cherry blossoms as they passed by the stores.

The next area was a local hospital and a couple of blocks down the road were the police station. A couple of paramedics were hanging around outside, possibly on their break. A cop walked by and gave Lee a wave to which he returned.

"That's Andre," Lee informed his friends. "He's a friend of Blake's, I believe."

They stopped in front of the Macon, Georgia mall. It was a fairly large mall with two floors, but a bit smaller than the one in Atlanta.

Lee decided to escort them inside and let everyone go and look around or maybe even buy some things. Luke went with Nick, Carlos went with Astrid and Sarah, Bonnie went with Mike, and Ben went with his family and Mark, leaving only Lee and Pete alone.

"Just you and me." Pete stated the obvious.

"You can come with," Lee nodded once, and led Pete around. "You like fishing?"

"Like it? Been fishing and hunting all my life." Pete replied as he followed Lee towards a nearby fishing store.

"You told me about that time you took Nick hunting when he was a kid, right?" Lee chuckled. "Must be funny to think about."

"Would have been funny if the boy didn't nearly shoot me." Pete replied whilst he was looking at a couple of fishing items that had his interest. "Still, I'm glad I was finally able to get him to shoot his first deer."

Lee didn't say any more about it and went to look around. He didn't buy anything, but Pete bought two fishing poles and a new tackle box.

"Well, here are my souvenirs." Pete said with a grin as they walked out of the fishing store and proceeded to walk around the mall.

"Kenny would really like that store too," Lee replied, leading Pete over to the escalator. They noticed Luke and Nick coming out of a store on the upper floor with a large bag. Pete just shook his head, probably wondering what they had in there.

The decided to go into a souvenir store where Carlos and his family were inside too. Lee and Pete went to look at a couple of stores near the end of the store.

Lee looked at a coffee mug and decided that it had been awhile since he'd bought anything from his hometown, so he purchased it. He thought about buying something for Carley too, as a present, but didn't know.

Nearby, Sarah was admiring another souvenir that was a snow globe with a small version of Macon inside. It looked beautiful and Sarah definitely wanted it.

She got out her wallet given to her for her last birthday and counted the money, and luckily, she had enough. With a smile, she went over to pay for it, and decided to show Carlos, who was looking at some calendars. "Dad, look what I got!"

Carlos accepted the snow globe and smiled slightly as he admired it. "It looks like a great souvenir, sweetie. Just be careful with it, okay."

"Okay," Sarah nodded, and wrapped it back up carefully. She went to search for her mother.

Astrid was not that far away, looking at a couple of Macon artwork paintings hanging on the wall above some more souvenirs. She always had a passion for art and could not help but admire them.

Sarah enthusiastically showed her the snow globe, shaking it excitedly for emphasis. "Look, Mom!"

Astrid was impressed, and told Sarah that she could put on her dresser in her room when they got home. The two of them looked through some paintings and picked one before meeting Carlos up front.

It was about an hour before everyone was ready to leave the mall.

Everyone gathered around at their meeting place which was at 2:00 PM according to Lee. Some of them came back with different items. Pete was carrying a huge bag on his back, Astrid and Sarah were each holding a bag, Luke was carrying a quite a big bag and Nick had a different t-shirt on over the one he was wearing today.

* * *

><p>Lee led them around town, stopping at a few destinations, before heading back to the hotel. It was time to walk around now with Clementine, Ed, Diana, Carley, Doug, Alvin, Rebecca, AJ, Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck.<p>

"Just as I remembered it." Clementine spoke up as they entered the shopping mall (a second time for Lee today).

"Should we all have a look around and meet up back here?" Doug suggested, his eyes were immediately darted towards a computer shop.

"We can do that," Lee nodded, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to check out some of the stores he hadn't gone to yet.

"There's that fishing store..." Kenny said thoughtfully.

Like before, everyone split up into different groups to check out the different stores. Clementine went with her family, Kenny went with his family, Omid went with Christa, Alvin went with Rebecca and AJ, leaving Lee, Carley and Doug left.

"Well, I'm going to go and check out that computer store." Doug said as he proceeded towards the said store.

After he was out of their hearing range, Carley turned towards Lee and nudged him slightly. "Why am I not surprised he would want to go there first?"

"The same reason why I'm not surprised about Kenny going to that fishing store," Lee chuckled as he watched said man and his family go in that direction, Duck running ahead excitedly.

Carley followed Lee up the escalator, and the two debated on what store to go to first. Lee had already been to most of the ones downstairs, but not as many up here.

The first place they want into was another clothing store. Next door was a pet store where Omid and Christa were looking inside.

Omid raised a smile as he picked up a collar and a toy and showed them to his girlfriend. "Whiskers would love something like this."

"Omid, the last time you tried to put a collar on Whiskers, he nearly clawed your face off," Christa told him humorously.

"Well, he might have adapted to it by now." Omid replied with a shrug. He always liked to look on the positive side of things.

"Sure," Christa rolled her eyes, and decided to go look at the fish despite Omid's protests that Whiskers hated fish.

Omid decided to listen to his girlfriend's warnings, but he still decided to buy his cat a toy.

In the next store, Lee decided to buy a few new shirts when Carley called for his attention, showing off a new purple dress that she had just tried on. He did his very best not to stare.

"How do I look?" Carley asked as she did a quick twirl.

"Uhh..." Lee shook his head, knowing that if he stared any longer he may have to slap himself in the face. "You look great." He offered her a smile.

"Thank you." Carley smiled as she stepped back inside the dressing room to get change back into her normal outfit.

Lee sighed and massaged his temple. "Don't stutter like that again," he chastised himself as he picked up a black shirt.

Before long, everyone was done shopping and regrouped at the front of the mall, some of them with bags, especially Doug who was carrying a laptop case.

"You ain't never going to run out of those, are ya?" Kenny teased lightheartedly. Doug nudged him on the shoulder.

Lee took everyone to the same places he took the others, and soon they were back at the motor inn.

Most of the group decided to just relax in their rooms for a little while with the exception of Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck who all went out for a family meal. Luck and Nick also decided to go out and explore the town.

Lee sat on his bed and decided to watch some TV for a while, keeping the volume down low in case anyone nearby was trying to take a nap. He settled for a football game, not really caring who won.

He shared his room with Carley but she was not present at the moment. She was with Alvin and Rebecca in their room.

Lee could hear another "argument" from Omid and Christa's room next door, but decided that it would be rude to eavesdrop. He felt a little hungry then, and decided to call up for a little dinner.

Lee ordered some cheese sandwiches to his room and sat with half his body against the top of the bed with the other half of his body lying down. He continued to watch the game whilst eating his lunch.

Carley came in a few minutes later and closed the door, fixing her hair up. Lee noticed her and put his sandwich aside. "Hey."

"Hey." Carley returned the greeting. She took off her purple jacket and hung it on the coat hanger in their room.

She sat down on her bed, facing Lee and giving him a look as if to say, "Football? Really?"

Lee merely shrugged in response.

"So got any plans for the rest of the day?" Carley inquired as she tried to get comfortable on her bed.

"Probably not," Lee responded. "Might call my family, they might meet us at the festival tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good." Carley agreed as she placed her arms behind the back of her neck.

A couple of hours later, Lee and Carley were getting a little bored and decided to go outside for a little while. Kenny, Katjaa and Duck had returned from their family dinner. Clementine, Duck, Sarah and Ben were all playing a game of soccer together.

Duck kicked the ball and accidentally nailed Lee in the stomach, causing him to double over with an, "oomph." Carley couldn't help but laugh softly, and threw the ball back to the kids.

"Sure, don't even check if I'm okay," Lee said sarcastically, but he was smiling.

"Sorry Lee!" Duck apologized as he picked up the ball and ran back with his friends.

Lee decided to walk up to the kids, with Carley following. "Don't worry about it, Duck," he shrugged it off. "But maybe we could play with you, in teams. Make it me, you and Ben against Carley, Clementine, and Sarah. Guys against the girls. What do you say?"

"Yeah!" Duck nodded and bounced slightly.

"It sounds good to me." Clementine agreed with a small smile.

Ben merely shrugged in response.

So the six of them got into position. Lee and Carley were the "captains" for their teams, and Lee called the game to begin. He kicked the ball over in Ben's direction.

Ben attempted to go right for the goal but Clementine was able to get the ball away from him and kicked it to Carley who proceeded to find a way to get past Lee.

"Hey, look over there!" Sarah cried, pointing in a random direction to help Carley distract Lee.

Fortunately, her little trick worked and Lee looked behind him, with Carley kicking the ball into the goal while he was distracted. Score one for the girls.

"Nice going, honey." Astrid praised her daughter from where she and Carlos were standing nearby.

Lee put his "It's on" face on and prepared for the next round. He got the ball on his own and headed straight for the goal where Sarah was. Clementine attempted to stop Lee, but the older man tapped the tip of her hat and knocked her hat over her eyes, quickly zooming past her.

"Hey!" Clementine complained but she was smiling of course. She chased after Lee.

Lee continued to kick the ball towards the goal, laughing all the way with Clementine chasing him. Just as she tackled him, he kicked it over to Duck. Duck proceeded to be the one to kick the ball into the goal, but only because the ball would have hit Sarah square in the face had she not moved just in time.

"Good job, Duck!" Kenny called.

Score one for the guys.

* * *

><p>The game of soccer continued for the next hour or so until they were near the end with the score being 9-9 according to Doug who was keeping score. One more point from both teams and whoever scored would be declared winner.<p>

Before they began, both teams stood by their goals and made their plans.

"Okay, Sarah, you stay near the goal. Clementine, you come with me. If you have the ball, pass it to me and I'll shoot, okay?" Carley debriefed their plan and the two girls nodded. All three of them placed a hand on top of the other to declare their plan was settled.

Nearby, Lee, Ben and Duck were doing the same thing with Lee being the one to debrief their plan.

"Alright, here's what we'll do," Lee instructed. "I'll be the goalie this time around. When one of you gets the ball, make sure to get over to the other goal as fast as you can, and try to get the ball in without injury. We got it?" He debriefed, placing his hand out.

"Got it." Ben nodded.

"Uh, huh." Duck replied.

The two placed their hands down upon Lee's and declared their plan to be settled. The three of them moved back onto the field and prepared to finish the game.

The girls were the ones with the ball first since the guys had scored last time. By now, Alvin, Rebecca (along with AJ), and Mark had emerged from their rooms and were now watching the game.

Clementine was able to kick the ball to Carley without any trouble. It was when the older woman tried to dodge Duck when things got a little competitive.

Duck was surprisingly faster than he looked and was able to get the ball past Carley and passed it to Ben. The older teenager kicked the ball towards the goal, but at the same time, he tried not to do it too hard in case he accidentally hit Sarah and broke her glasses.

Sarah was able to catch the ball and threw it back towards Carley.

Carley proceeded to kick the ball and run towards Lee's goal with everyone (with the exception of Sarah) running after her. Lee noticed this and got into position to dodge the goal in any way.

Lee paced quickly from side to side, showing that he was having fun anyway. For just a moment, there was a staring stand-off, but just until Duck was close to kicking the ball away. Carley kicked hard, and Lee tried to dodge it with his body. Unfortunately for him, the ball whizzed past and hit the goal, declaring the girls the winner of the game.

Sarah ran to Clementine and Carley and began cheering. "We won! We won!"

"Woo-hoo!" Clementine whooped as she, Sarah and Carley all shared high-five each other.

"Good job, Clem, you too, Sarah." Carley praised the two.

Despite losing, Lee smiled too and watched as the three celebrated. Ben looked a little exhausted and had to go and sit down. Duck looked a little downside that their team lost, but he still smiled nevertheless.

"Well, that was fun to watch," Diana commented where she and Ed were standing, leaning against a support beam.

"It's not the end of the world, Ducky," Katjaa comforted her son, who still looked a little upset about getting beaten by girls.

"I know." Duck nodded.

After they were done celebrating, Carley walked over towards Lee and pecked him on his cheek. "Good game, Lee."

"You too," Lee nodded. He was a good sport and didn't mind losing as it was all in good fun.

The two decided to go back to their hotel room as it was getting dark now but tomorrow was when the festival began and Lee could not wait.

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><p><strong>That brings us to the end of another chapter, folks. Chapter 12 will be here shortly and until then, I'll see you all next time.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12: the festival

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 12: the festival**

**Hey everyone, Assassin here and welcome to the next chapter. I don't really have much to say for this chapter, other than thanks for reading so far and hope everybody's doing good. **

**I also have a new poll up on my profile (if it's not there yet, give it some time). Be sure to check it out as it involves one of my stories.**

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><p>The next morning, everyone was up nice and early to get ready for the festival and to get some good seats. It wasn't a far walk from the hotel so there was no need for getting the bus. Lee's father called up and asked to meet by one of the booths near the entrance.<p>

"Yeah, Dad, we're on our way right now," Lee spoke into his cell.

_"All right, we'll meet you all then."_ John spoke on the other end before he hung up.

As the group continued walking through the streets of Macon, Luke could not help but arch an eyebrow to the t-shirt Nick brought yesterday. It was a plain white shirt with a logo in the middle saying "Macon Rocks".

"...Any reason you picked the Breaking Bad logo for the airbrushing?" Luke inquired, a curious eyebrow raised.

"Shut up," Nick muttered, crossing his arms. But he was smirking to himself.

Pete couldn't help but snicker. Every time he was at his nephew's house he almost always saw Nick and Luke watching Breaking Bad together.

But it wasn't as bad as what Omid was wearing. He was a wearing a blue shirt with a picture of a love heart in the center and Macon printed in the center. And he was wearing a black cap with "Macon Rocks" written across the cap.

That was what gave him more odd looks than Nick's choice of outfit. When he saw at least five people looking at him strangely, Omid looked down at his shirt and gave them a returning look that said, "What's wrong with my outfit?"

"What?" Omid asked when all eyes met him. "Is there something on my lip?"

Christa sighed as she held Omid's hand and they followed the others towards the festival. Despite his weird choice of clothing, today was going to be a great day.

They met Lee's family by the entrance as his father suggested. Katharine walked over and embraced Lee just as he approached them.

"I'm so glad you could make it, honey!" she told him. "And it's nice to see your friends again." She let go and smiled at everyone there, placing a hand on Clementine's shoulder. "It's been a long time, sweetheart. You've gotten big!"

"Everyone says that." Clementine replied with a smile as she and Katharine shared a quick hug. "It's nice to see you again."

Katharine patted her on the back and looked at the rest of the group. "Come on, we'll show you around."

Everyone followed John and Katharine through the streets of Macon where everyone was ready for the festival that was not going to be long now, and fortunately, there were still some spaces available.

As they were walking, Blake caught up to his brother and nudged him slightly. "So you and Carley together now?"

"Stop it," Lee nudged him back. But truthfully, he didn't know the answer to this question. He and Carley had become a lot closer since their date a couple of weeks back, but they weren't really seen as "together."

Everyone walked passed some tent-like booths such as the painting and artwork tent (which Astrid looked interested in) and the reptile tent (which Duck looked interested in). They would probably go inside of them later.

"Wow, this is a lot better in person." Mike admitted as he studied their surroundings. He rarely got to go on vacation and he only just moved into their neighborhood not too long ago, and here he was with new friends on a free vacation. This place was great.

"Anyone up for photos yet?" Astrid offered as she held up a camera around her neck.

"Sure," Lee nodded.

First, Astrid took a photo of Clementine, Ed, and Diana in front of a large cherry blossom tree. She promised that she would give them their family photo once they arrived home.

Next, Astrid gave the camera to Lee as she stood in front of the camera with Carlos and Sarah. They raised a smile as Lee took the photo and checked it. A perfect photo for a perfect vacation.

At least four more photos were taken, including (after much persuasion from most of the vacationers) a photo with just Carley and Lee, both of them blushing yet smiling as Astrid took the photo.

"When are you going to kiss her?" Kenny whispered to Lee in a teasing voice.

Lee tried to ignore him as they kept walking.

"So, mind if I have a look at the camera?" Doug requested to Astrid as they followed the others down the street.

"Sure." Astrid replied, handing the camera over to the technical man.

Doug examined the camera closely and smiled as he finished studying it. "Ahh, a very remarkable camera, 1080p HD and 24.3MP."

Astrid looked astonished, as if she was wondering how Doug knew all that.

"He majored in technology during college, I'm told," Lee confirmed. "That camera takes great pictures."

"No argument here." Doug replied as he handed Astrid her camera back.

"Hey, look, I think the air show will be startin' soon," Kenny pointed up ahead. He was referring to a half-hour long show where aerobatic moves by military airplanes took place.

"I can't wait; this is going to be awesome." Omid exclaimed as he turned his hat backwards instead of forwards, causing Christa to sigh and placed her hand to her face.

The group of twenty plus people found some decent seats in some folding chairs, ready to watch the airplanes in the sky take off.

"So anything else happen during or after the air show?" Ed asked Lee as they all took a seat together.

"Well, I think there's the Battle of the Bands going on later today, and I think there's hot-air balloon rides for anyone who wants one," Lee answered. "The fair rides will be here tomorrow."

"No thanks, I hate heights." Ed declined with a slight grin.

As the festival began and more people showed up, Christa looked around and noticed her boyfriend was no longer sitting beside her. She didn't remember him leaving.

Before she could ask, Omid returned a few seconds later, making his way through the others sitting down until he took a seat beside Christa, holding a hotdog in one hand and a soda in the other.

"Omid, it's ten in the morning and we've already eaten breakfast," Christa scolded.

Omid tried to look innocent, and offered her the fountain drink.

Christa merely sighed in response but decided not to say anything else when the festival began.

A couple of minutes later, a motor noise signaled that the planes had now taken off. Three of them began to perform some aerobatic moves in the sky.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Carley explained as she watched the planes fly around the area.

Astrid took the opportunity to take some photos of the planes flying past, but it was hard to get a good shot because of how fast they were moving. Doug was doing something similar, recording the entire show on his cellphone.

"Did you see that, Kat?" Kenny inquired to his wife, who was sitting next to him. "Those two planes almost crashed into each other."

Katjaa gave a small laugh. "Hopefully that doesn't actually happen."

"I think it was just part of the act." John assured them as the airplanes went past.

Omid took out his cellphone and took a photo of the planes going past. He smiled and averted his attention to his cellphone. "This is so going on Facebook."

Two of the planes did a 360 turn, which caused a riot of applause from the audience watching.

"Wasn't that cool, Clem?" Sarah inquired of her younger friend sitting beside her.

"It was awesome." Clementine replied astounded as she turned towards her older friend just for a moment.

Behind the two was Doug who continued to record the entire event on his cellphone. He shifted his phone camera away from the airshow and shifted it towards the two sitting in front of him. "Hey girls, what do you both think of the airshow?"

"It's great." Clementine replied until she noticed they were being filmed.

"It's amazing!" Sarah added, waving to the phone camera happily.

"A good thing I brought my best phone too." Doug added as he averted his cell phone back towards air show.

As a few minutes went by, the airshow eventually ended and now it was time for the next event.

Now it was time for the Battle of the Bands, a small parade with a bunch of college bands from around the nation playing their instruments. Astrid took this time to get her camera ready.

The band went by with everyone playing their instruments. An average amount of spectators began to stand up and cheer for the festival, including Lee and his family, Omid, Clementine, Sarah, and Katie.

Katie tried to get Ben to stand up so that she could sit on his shoulders, but to no avail.

"Isn't this great?" Lee said to Carley. "Maybe next year you could do some reports here."

"I'll keep that in mind." Carley noted whilst she was watching the festival.

Eventually, Ben decided to give in and stood up, picking up his little sister and placing her on his shoulders so she could see.

"I remember the year Blake was actually in this," Katharine reminisced.

"Look at the size of that tuba," Luke pointed out.

"Hey Nick, remember when your mother tried to play one of those?" Pete recalled with a short chuckle.

"Blake was in the festival?" Bonnie asked Katharine.

"Now we have to remind her once we get back," Nick grinned.

Blake muttered something under his breath about how he hated it.

"We'll ask Astrid for a photo." Pete replied as he nudged his nephew slightly.

Christa was paying close attention to the festival until the sounds of someone slurping their drink loudly caused her to frown. She turned towards her boyfriend who had just finished his hotdog but was now drinking his soda.

"Omid, is that really necessary?" she chastised, giving her boyfriend a "where are your manners" expression.

"How else can you drink soda?" Omid asked as he took the straw out of his mouth.

"Quietly?" Christa asked sarcastically.

"Hey, check it out; I think the band from Atlanta is coming up!" Mark announced.

Everyone averted their attention to the band from Atlanta marching up the streets. Everyone present decided to stand up and cheer for the band for a moment or two since they all were from Atlanta (except for the Everett family).

"These are going to be some great memories." Astrid spoke up as she took a couple of photos.

Out of everyone yelling, it was probably Duck who had to be the loudest of everyone. He was currently wearing Kenny's hat and jumping up and down on the bleachers.

After the band from Atlanta had passed by, the group settled down and took their seats again and waited for the next band to march through. Everyone was enjoying themselves so far and Lee was glad this trip was going as planned.

Again, Doug was recording the entire thing, and turned his phone camera to Carley and Lee.

"Are you going to film everything?" Lee inquired.

"Yep." Doug answered as he kept the camera focused on the two. "So Lee, Carley, are you both enjoying the festival?"

"I'm enjoying it." Carley responded with a slight nod.

"I am too," Lee agreed.

Doug looked satisfied with their answer and turned his camera back to the upcoming band that was playing.

Carlos had been sitting quietly beside his wife whilst his daughter was sitting a row down beside Clementine and her family. He leaned forward and placed a hand upon her shoulder. "Are you enjoying the festival, sweetie?"

"I'm having lots of fun, Dad!" Sarah responded. "I hope we can come back one day."

"Let's just see where today gets us, Sarah." Carlos replied as he leaned back in his chair. He always liked to make sure things went right before he would decide to do it again.

Sarah nodded rapidly, and everyone continued to watch the band battle. About thirty minutes later, it was over, and it was time to move on. Everyone started to split up to look around themselves.

"Wow that was an amazing festival." Ed spoke up as he, Diana and Clementine walked with Lee and his family. "Thanks for inviting us, Lee."

"Don't mention it," Lee responded as they walked the trail.

Now that this event was over, the group decided to go and explore the carnival area with rides, games, food, and displays. Everything was going great so far and it was about to get even better.

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><p><strong>That's a wrap for this chapter, folks. I should have some more free time on my hands soon and that means I may be able to update a little bit quicker than usual for a little while. We'll see how it goes. Stay tuned for the next chapter.<strong>


	13. Chapter 13: rides and games

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 13: rides and games  
><strong>

**Hey everyone, we're back with another chapter. In case anyone missed my last authors note, I have a new voting poll on my profile. That, and I hope everyone had a good Valentine times day. Aside from that, here's chapter 13, enjoy.**

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><p>The group decided to part ways with each other to do some different activities. They all mainly went in different groups as families with some of them joining the others. Firstly, Lee and Carley decided to go and ride the rollercoaster with Clementine, Ed, Diana, Carlos, Astrid and Sarah.<p>

They all fastened themselves in and prepared for the ride to go. Clem and Sarah were seated at the very front, and they both looked very excited.

Carlos had to admit that he was not exactly the type of person who enjoyed rides, but his wife and daughter insisted, so he decided to give it a shot. He sat with Astrid in the third row of the rollercoaster with Lee and Carley in front of them and Ed and Diana behind them.

The ride began slowly and smoothly, with the coaster going up a medium-sized hill. They came to a drop that didn't go straight down, but was still pretty fast. Then the speed began to pick up, and a flash took their picture. Clementine had her arms in the air, and Sarah only had one because she had to hold her glasses with the other. Lee was just smiling with Carley looking a little fearful due to not liking heights.

"Woooooo!" Astrid cheered as he had her hair and her hands in the air excitedly. She seemed to love this ride.

"Whooooa!" Carlos called out as his longish hair was going all over the place.

The ride lasted for about four or five minutes, and then they got off. Clementine went over to her parents telling them how much fun she thought the ride was. Everyone walked together to the nearby booth to collect their photo. It was pretty funny.

"That's going in the book when we get home." Astrid replied as she placed the photograph into her bag. On the photo it showed Carlos looking scared when they went down the fast part.

"Astrid." Carlos sighed, earning him a couple of laughs. He decided to join in nevertheless as he sorted out his hair.

Sarah giggled and grabbed her father's hand as their portion of the group continued down the path, near the artwork tents.

They walked inside and decided to have a lot at some of the artwork inside. Astrid was really interested in this painting of Macon that she was examining closely. Alvin and Rebecca were inside too with AJ sleeping in Rebecca's arms.

"Hey, you two enjoying the festival so far?" Lee decided to greet them (quietly because of the baby).

"It's amazing, Lee." Rebecca answered with a smile. "We're really glad you invited us."

"Yeah, thanks Lee." Alvin thanked, however he could not help but notice everyone's hair looking a bit messy compared to earlier. "Let me guess, did you all go on the rollercoaster?"

"You can say that again," Diana laughed as she fixed up her messy hair.

Clementine was just glad that she didn't lose her hat whilst on the roller coaster.

After visiting the artwork area, the portion of the group decided to go and get something to eat at the food fair nearby. Christa and Omid were already there and Omid had quite a big plate in his hands with different types of foods. How hungry was he?

"Omid, this is your third plate of food today," Christa scolded.

Omid just shrugged with a smirk as he ate some cheese-coated nachos. The group decided to order whatever food and met at a big table so they could eat together.

After gathering some food, Lee, Carley, Ed, Diana, Clementine, Carlos, Astrid, Sarah, Omid, and Christa all took a seat around the same table together and began to eat the food they picked. They dug into their food (Omid being a little faster).

"This is some good sandwiches." Omid muffled before swallowing his food.

Christa only sighed as she took a small bite of her corn dog. Just then, Luke and Nick came by with their own plates of food and bottles of soda, taking a seat along with their friends.

"Hey, y'all," Luke greeted as he put some ketchup on his cheeseburger.

"Hey Luke, Nick." Clementine greeted before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"What you two been up to?" Carlos inquired whilst deciding what to eat first. He decided to go for a hotdog.

"We went on that roller coaster, saw that picture," Nick answered in a teasing voice, directed at Carlos and Carley (who both grunted).

"Least they weren't screaming like a little girl," Luke nudged him gently.

This caused Omid to laugh and almost spat out his drink when he was taking a sip. He calmed himself down before his laughter got out of control. Nevertheless, the others chuckled slightly as well, causing Nick to frown slightly.

"I want to see the picture!" Sarah declared enthusiastically.

At her request (and Nick's protests), Luke got the small photo out of his wallet for everyone to see, causing Nick to growl like a tiger, and held his head in his hands. The photo had a grinning Luke and Pete, with a screaming Nick. Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck were also in the photo. This caused the group to laugh harder, luckily while no one was eating or drinking.

"Mind if I get a copy of that?" Ed requested after Sarah handed Luke the photo back.

"NO!" Nick shouted.

"Sure, after lunch I can go buy more," Luke teased, ignoring Nick.

Nick held his hands against his face and placed his head down on the table. This was a day he was never going to live down.

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><p>Twenty minutes later, the group finished their lunch (with a reprimand from Christa to Omid not to buy any more food), and went off to do something else. Clementine wanted to ride the roller coaster again, but she couldn't until her food settled, otherwise she would get sick.<p>

For now, the group decided to go to a game area where they could win various tickets and exchange them for prizes. The first one they decided to head to was a game called Dunker. The game was simple: pay $5 and you are given 5 baseballs to throw at a red target. If they hit it, a man inside a small booth would fall into the water. Clementine decided to go first.

"Go Clementine!" Ed cheered as she threw one ball but missed.

Clementine threw two more but missed again and had only two left. She inhaled a deep breath, adjusted her hat and threw the ball, hitting the target. The man inside fallen into the water.

The group applauded, and the little girl turned around and gave a proud smile. Carley went next, paying her $5 and gathering her balls. She had a very good aim, so she was able to hit the target on the second ball, causing the man to go down again. He climbed back up, shaking himself off.

"Want to have a go, Sarah?" Astrid offered her daughter.

Sarah nodded eagerly, and Carlos handed her the $5 to pay up. She threw the first one but missed.

She threw three more but missed again and was beginning to think she was not going to do it. With a deep breath and relaxation, Sarah concentrated hard, throwing the ball and hit the red target directly in the center. The man inside the booth fallen into the water for a third time.

"I did it!" Sarah nearly yelled, turning to her parents.

The man got back up, grumbling. So far everyone had gotten to him; he was probably hoping that someone would miss soon.

The last one in their group who had a go was Omid. He threw one ball and to everyone's surprise, he hit the target and the man fell down yet again. The prize was usually 10 tickets but because he got it in one hit, he won 20.

Omid clapped his hands and whooped loudly. Christa rolled her eyes in an amused fashion.

"So, how many tickets did we get in all?" Lee wanted to know.

"50." Omid answered as he handed half his tickets to Clementine and the other half to Sarah. "Here, you both can have him."

"Thanks, Omid." Clementine thanked gratefully as she placed all of her tickets into her jacket pocket.

Sarah grinned at Omid in response, and then the group trekked on. Next they went to a water racing game, where you shoot a water gun at a target all the way to the top, and whoever got to the top first would win a prize.

Clementine, Sarah, Carley and Astrid decided to be the ones to have a turn. When the carny told them the go, all four of them immediately began firing water.

It took a total of fifteen seconds, but eventually Clementine was declared the winner, with Sarah coming in a close second.

"Good job, Clem," Lee praised.

"Thanks Lee." she thanked as she accepted her winnings which were fifteen tickets.

Later on, they decided to meet back up with the rest of the group for more photos and to sightsee around a bit.

Everyone was regrouped (with the exception of Ben and his family) and looked around the area for a bit with Astrid taking photos and Doug recording the entire event. The guy might as well become a cameraman.

They decided to take a bus tour around the cherry blossom trails. Due to the amount of people, they had to take two separate buses. Lee sat down in a seat between Carley and Blake, who had a mischievous smile on his face.

The other members of their group in the same place were Omid and Christa, Carlos, Astrid and Sarah, and Luke and Nick. Everyone else was on a separate bus.

As the bus began to take motion, Lee noticed the look on his brother's face. "What?"

"You know." Blake replied as he averted his eyes towards Carley who didn't seem to be noticing them talking. She was too busy admiring the festival outside the bus.

"Blake," Lee deadpanned. But Blake crossed his arms, giving him that knowing smile.

Lee merely sighed in response as he sat back and enjoy the ride and the view of the festival.

The cherry blossoms were just as beautiful as Lee remembered. It had been a few years since he had actually gone to this festival (last time had been with his ex-wife), so it was nice to see it again.

And it was perfect to have his family and friends with him for this glorious day. He could imagine that there was anything else he could do to make this day even better.

He began to think about it. He knew that his friends would probably want to come back here for a day or two, and they could do something different on the last day.

For now, he decided to just enjoy himself for the rest of the day. He knew everyone was having a great time and had no reason to complain. When the bus tour had ended, the group all banded together and decided look around a little more until they came across another game where you had to hit a sledgehammer against the round object and see if you could hit the bell.

"I'll go first." Mike offered as he paid one dollar for the prize and accepted the sledgehammer. With one strong hit, he was able to hit the bell all the way to the top and won thirty tickets.

No one was too surprised at that, since most of them knew that Mike was a lot stronger than he looked. Alvin decided to go next, and hit as hard as he could. He didn't quite make it to the top, but he was fairly close. He won twenty-five tickets for his hit.

And lastly, Lee decided to have a go. He picked up the sledgehammer and with one strong hit, he almost got the top like Alvin did but he didn't quite make it there. He won twenty five tickets.

No-else decided to have a go and moved up to the next game that was a shooting range game. The game was simple: pick up the gun and shoot as many targets down as possible. The more points you got, the more tickets you won, but if you shoot a civilian, you lose points.

Lee, Carley, Blake, Ed, and Carlos (after some persuasion) decided to go first. Ed paid for everyone, and they were all given ten shots of ammunition.

Everyone fired all of their ammunition each and hit as many targets down as they could. Carley came first and she did not miss one target and earned fifty, Lee came second and won forty, and everyone else got the same amount of tickets of thirty. That was one-hundred and twenty all together.

"Wow, 180 tickets just from that," Christa commented, taking the tickets to hand to Clementine, Sarah, and Duck.

"Let's see what we can get with them." Lee replied.

The group decided to head inside the tent store where you exchanged your tickets for prizes. Omid stepped up first with the twenty tickets he won earlier and noticed a red bear hat that had his attention interested, and as luck it would have it, it cost twenty tickets. He took off his hat and put on the beer hat after he brought it.

"Omid..." Christa pinched the bridge of her nose. He really seemed to be getting the vacation fever.

Next up was Clementine. She had a ton of tickets since a lot of them had been given to her, and she looked around for something that would catch her eye.

She continued looking until she noticed a hat that looked somewhat similar to her own, but instead of a D, it had a C on it and it was orange and white instead of purple and white. Although she cherished her hat closely, she decided it would not hurt to have another hat and decided to get it.

After she purchased it, she placed her original hat into her pink backpack and placed her new hat onto her head. "This is going to be my vacation hat from now on."

"It looks really cool!" Sarah complimented as she went to turn in her own tickets.

Once everyone had their prizes, it was time to move on. It was getting dark soon, so that meant that the festival only had a little while before it closed for the evening. What else could they do?

"Anyone up for getting some more snacks?" Omid offered, only to earn a nudge from Christa. "What?"

"I am," Nick volunteered.

"You guys have eaten like five times today," Luke commented.

"I can't help it." Omid shrugged like it was nothing. "The food here is amazing."

So a few of them decided to get a little food (Christa eventually gave in due to her pregnancy giving her a craving) while the rest of them decided to go back on some of the rides. Duck was eagerly shouting for his parents to hurry up.

"Alright, Duck, don't pop a gasket," Kenny told him.

"Hey Lee, have you ever tried this?" Clementine asked as she offered him a drink with Japanese writing across it. "It's really good."

Lee took a sip and frowned, he couldn't identify the taste. "What's it supposed to be, Clem?"

"That's a good question." Clementine agreed with a slight shrug. "I don't know what's in it, but I like it."

"I'm assuming you got it at that Japanese restaurant booth?"

"Yep." Clementine nodded.

All of the kids (minus AJ, obviously) went back on the roller coaster once more time before they had to leave for the night, with a few of the adults joining. Nick, who had just finished two baskets of fries, had to turn away so that he wouldn't puke all over Sarah, who was sitting in front of him.

Like before, everyone enjoyed the ride on the rollercoaster except for Nick who began screaming like a girl again that caused Carlos to laugh. The doctor and his wife were sitting behind them.

Nick couldn't exactly turn around and glare due to the fast motion. He only agreed to come back on here after Pete bribed him with $30. No doubt the older man would have a great time sharing these memories with Helen.

The roller coaster ride ended after a few minutes and now it was time to leave for the day. After everyone met up, they began heading back to their homes. John, Katherine and Blake bade them goodbye as they went back home.

Once Carley and Lee entered their hotel room, Carley fell onto her bed with a sigh, tired from so much walking today. Lee sat on his own bed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Wow, what a day." Carley sighed as she went into their bathroom to get changed into her pajamas.

"Yeah..." Lee agreed, flipping on the television and turning it down low. When Carley emerged out of the bathroom in a pair of dark blue pajamas, Lee went in to take a shower.

Next door they could hear Omid and Christa having another humorous argument with Christa trying to convince Omid to take off his beer hat.

"Omid, you can't possibly expect to sleep with that thing on your head," Christa retorted with a small laugh.

"Why not?" he asked like it was normally. "It's comfortable."

Christa could be heard groaning in the next room. Lee chuckled as he dried his hair with a white towel, listening to every word.

Before long, Lee switched off the TV and he and Carley bade each other goodnight before heading to sleep for the night. Tomorrow was going to be a new day in Macon and Lee was looking forward to it.

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><p><strong>And that's another chapter written and published, folks. It seems the group is having a wonderful time in Macon. Chapter 14 will be here shortly folks, should be Tuesday or tomorrow if we're lucky.<strong>


	14. Chapter 14: exploring Macon

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 14: exploring Macon**

**Yo, what about my fellow Walking Dead readers. A Writer With Mixed Interests and I are back to deliver you another chapter, and as a bonus, this one is longer than the usual chapter length. **

**Also, some if you may have noticed some words spelled different. For example, the word _Alright_. I write it as _All right_, but I am not spelling it wrong because that's how it is spelled in my country. Just thought I would let you know, folks.**

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><p>The next morning, Lee woke up quite early, before most of his friends in fact. He decided to get some fresh air since the mornings usually felt nice during the summer in Macon. He got dressed without waking up Carley and headed outside. There, Pete was leaning against a support beam smoking a cigarette.<p>

"Hey there." Pete greeted as he took another puff out of his cigarette.

"Morning, Pete," Lee nodded. "How do you like Macon so far?"

"It's a great place. A quiet town." Pete answered as he turned his attention towards one of the rooms where Carlos and his family had just woken up early too.

"Not like Atlanta, huh?" Lee shrugged. "So let me guess, you've already sent that picture of Nick to Helen?"

"Yep." Pete nodded as the Hidalgo family approached them. "I borrowed Doug's phone and sent it to her email last night."

Lee turned around and nodded at Carlos and his family.

"Good morning Lee, Pete." Carlos greeted the two. "We didn't expect anyone to be up until an hour or two."

"We were heading into town to get some breakfast, want to come?" Astrid offered.

"Sure," Lee responded, and Pete nodded. The five of them began walking from the hotel.

"We were heading to that cafeteria we saw the other day." Carlos spoke up as they walked through the peaceful streets of Macon. "Lee, what is the food like in there? Is it good?"

"Yeah, I've eaten there a couple of times with my parents, pretty cheap too," Lee explained.

"Then let us be on our way." Carlos replied as he walked down the road towards Macon, holding Sarah's hand whilst doing so.

Ten minutes later, the group of five reached a small cafe and went inside. The hostess, named Molly, led them to a booth and handed them their menus.

"Here you all go." Molly said as they looked into their menus. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Pete quickly decided on the eggs Benedict with bacon, but it took a few minutes for the others to decide on what they wanted.

"I think I'm going to have the egg and bacon sandwich with some coffee." Carlos spoke up as he placed his menu down onto the table. He turned back towards his daughter. "What would you like, Sarah?"

"Umm..." Sarah paused, taking a look and reading through it briefly, before making a decision. "I'll have pancakes, with strawberry syrup! With bacon."

Pretty soon, Molly returned to take their orders, with Astrid deciding on a fruit salad and Lee on a ham and cheese omelet with a hash brown casserole.

"Uh huh." Molly nodded as she wrote down their orders on a notebook. "Would any of you like anything drink as well?"

"I'll have some coffee please." Carlos requested.

"Just some tea for me please." Astrid added.

Pete and Lee also ordered a coffee; while Sarah piped up that she wanted orange juice. Molly wrote everything down and walked away.

"So, enjoying Macon so far?" Lee inquired to the family sitting across from him.

"We love this town so far." Astrid answered with her usual smile.

"Yes, and we really appreciate you inviting us here." Carlos added, expressing his gratitude.

"No problem," Lee offered a smile in return.

"I really like the cherry blossoms," Sarah explained. "Bonnie said that she wanted to plant some."

"It's hard to find some in Atlanta." Astrid admitted. "Bonnie certainly does love her flowers."

"Yeah, I overheard her telling Mike she wanted to plant a tree in her front yard," Lee replied.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Pete agreed. Since they were on the subject and were waiting for their breakfast, they all decided to make conversation. "So what do ya'll think of Mike anyway?"

"I think he's a nice guy." Carlos spoke up. "He's certainly handful with his experience as a worker."

"I think he's a good guy, pretty strong too," Lee added.

"Remember him yesterday on that sledgehammer game?" Astrid recalled. "He was able to hit the top in one hit."

"Yeah, he hit it really hard!" Sarah responded.

Molly came then to hand them their drinks, telling them that their food would be ready shortly.

"Thank you." Carlos thanked as he took a sip of coffee.

"So, Lee, we've seen the town and the festival. Is there anywhere else you'd like to show us?" Astrid inquired whilst he opened a small pack of sugar and tipped it into her cup, stirring it with a spoon.

"Well, there's the Macon Little Theatre, if you're into that, and the Johnston-Felton-Hay House," Lee answered. "Ed and Diana were looking into that when we arrived."

"Those sound like good places." Astrid admitted after she took a sip of her tea. "We'll have to check them out when we get the chance."

"If we go back to the festival, I want to go on that roller coaster again!" Sarah cried. "That was lots of fun."

At that comment, Pete laughed quietly to himself, possibly remembering his nephew's reaction.

"Was there anything else we missed at the festival, Lee?" Pete inquired, hoping to find more techniques to use against his nephew. "Any haunted houses or any other rides?"

"I think the cherry blossom parade starts today, at around 11 or 12," Lee commented. "Oh, and the hot air balloons."

"Sounds like fun." Astrid agreed.

Before long, Molly had returned with all of their breakfast in her hands and arms. It must be tough to carry all of them at once, but she seemed to be handling herself. She announced the names of their food as she placed them down to make certain she got the right food. "A ham and cheese omelet with hash brown casserole, egg and bacon sandwich, a fruit salad, pancakes with strawberry syrup and bacon, and eggs benedict with bacon. That all right?"

"Yes," Lee nodded. "Thank you."

Molly set down their plates, and after saying grace, they began to chow down.

"Hmm, this is some good fruit salad." Astrid admitted after she took a bite out of her breakfast. "It's delicious."

"I got to say, Lee, Macon sure knows how to make some good food." Pete complimented before taking a bite out of his food.

"Tell that to Omid, I don't think we saw him without a snack," Lee chuckled as he cut up his omelet.

"Same with Nick." Pete agreed, followed by a slight chuckle.

"Seeing Nick in that picture was really funny," Sarah smiled at the older man whilst she poured some strawberry syrup over her pancakes.

"Can't wait to show it to his mother." Pete chuckled as he dropped some salt onto his breakfast.

"I wonder what Omid would think of this place," Lee thought aloud.

"They'll be out of business faster than you can say, "hello"." Pete replied with a chuckle.

That got a laugh out of everybody. By now most of the Atlanta neighborhood was used to Omid and his witty personality.

"He's a nice person though and always likes to look on the positive side of things." Carlos replied before taking a bite out of his breakfast.

"One time he asked me if his cat could play with Pepper," Sarah added.

"But he's cat didn't want to leave their home." Astrid reminded with a slight grin.

"Did Omid tell you about when Whiskers got drunk?" Lee inquired with a small laugh.

"Whiskers got drunk?" Carlos questioned, arching a suspicious eyebrow. "I didn't think that was possible."

"I didn't know animals could get drunk," Sarah pointed out with a confused expression.

"Omid and Christa can tell you guys all about it," Lee told them.

The five of them continued eating their breakfast, finishing about twenty minutes later. Pete offered to pay, but Astrid and Carlos insisted since it had been their idea. They began making their way out of the small cafe.

"Hmm, I'm stuffed." Pete announced as he patted his hand against his stomach. Breakfast certainly filled him up fast.

"The food here is very delicious." Astrid added.

They passed a book store, which caught Sarah's eye. She really wanted some new books, and asked her parents if they could go in there later.

"Sure we can, sweetie." Carlos replied as they continued making their way towards the motor inn.

A few people were awake now once they arrived. They could see Kenny and Katjaa were talking, watching as Duck and Clementine were playing together near the front.

"Hey, y'all," Kenny greeted as he saw them approaching.

"Hey Kenny." Carlos greeted.

After a small wave, Sarah went off to join her friends. She was still shy around Katjaa and Kenny.

"Nice morning, isn't it?" Katjaa added.

"A beautiful morning." Astrid agreed as they took a seat on some lawn chairs that were set outside. "Carlos, Sarah, Pete, Lee and I went to a cafe this morning for breakfast. The food there was great."

"We were wondering about that place," Katjaa responded.

"Omid, you slept with that thing on your head and you've worn it all day," Christa commented as she and her boyfriend emerged from their own room. Omid was still wearing that beer hat. "I think it's time you took it off."

"Wish I had me one of those," Kenny muttered.

"All right, all right, babe, I'll take it off." Omid assured as he took off his hat and threw it back into their room. He picked up his regularly cap and placed it back upon his head.

"Well, you're clearly enjoying yourself," Lee told him teasingly.

"Yep." Omid nodded as they two walked down the steps and joined the others.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Christa inquired as she and Omid approached the six people.

"We're likely going back to the festival today, they've got the hot air balloons lifting off, and the parade," Lee responded. "Tomorrow we might do something different."

Beside him, Pete had a mischievous smile on his face, probably thinking about more ways to torture Nick.

"Any other rides at the parade?" Clementine inquired after she and Duck were down playing a game of soccer with each other. She enjoyed the roller coaster and hoped there was more.

"Sure there is, there's the Ring of Fire, and those swings that bring you up in the air and spin you around just to name a couple," Lee responded. "Just don't get sick."

"That damn Ring of Fire," Kenny chuckled, shaking his head.

"I thought they would have had go-karts." Omid admitted, but he still looked satisfied with what the festival had to offer.

That did not surprise Christa since Omid loved to drive. She remembered the last time they went go-karting and Omid accidentally knocked someone off the track.

Within forty-five minutes, everyone was awake. Once they were all ready, they began walking back to the festival, wondering what would happen today.

"So, we meeting up with your parents and brother again?" Carley asked Lee as they walked ahead of the group to lead the way.

"Later on. They have to work the pharmacy for the morning," Lee answered.

Carlos picked up the pace a little to catch up with Lee to ask him a question: "How long have they owned a drugstore, Lee?"

"They've owned it for about...thirty years, I think," said Lee. "I remember when they first opened it, when Blake and I were kids. They were hoping that he and I would continue the family business, but I guess it's up to him now."

"You did the best you could." Carlos assured. "You should do what you feel is right and achieve your goals in life."

"Thanks," Lee gave him a nod. "I enjoy being a teacher, though. I'm going on my sixth year."

"Me, too." Astrid agreed from a couple of feet behind where she and Sarah were following closely.

"Clementine hopes to have you once she's in college, Lee," Diana pointed out.

Clementine nodded in agreement. She told this to Lee a couple of weeks back.

"Well, I hope to have her too," Lee answered. "Wouldn't mind having Duck, Ben, and Sarah also. They're all good kids."

The names of the mentioned kids all heard him nearby. Duck nodded happily, Sarah merely smiled slightly and Ben chuckled nervously whilst rubbing the back of his neck. He was in high school and would not be long until he finished.

They reached the festival within ten minutes, taking a different entrance this time. Once again, cherry blossom trees were everywhere and people were walking all around. Pete turned to his nephew to tell him what he had in mind.

Nearby, they noticed someone dressed as a mascot costume, waving happily to random people as they walked past. Clementine decided to go and stand by him and allowed Astrid to take a photo as a suggestion from Ed. Clementine stood in front of the mascot with a smile as the mascot placed his hand upon her shoulder and gave a thumb up to the camera.

"And perfect." Astrid announced as she took a picture. She turned towards her daughter. "Want to go and have a picture with him, Sarah?"

Sarah nodded and ran towards the mascot, giving the camera a sweet smile as the mascot placed his hand on her shoulder much like he had done with Clementine. Astrid took the photo, and Sarah ran back. Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck were next to get their photo with the mascot.

"And smile." Astrid spoke up, waiting for the family of three to put on happy faces before taking the photo. "Perfect."

After a few more photos, the group continued to walk around. Nick tried to walk as far away from the hot air balloons as possible, but Pete managed to pull him back.

"Oh, come on, Nick." Pete persuaded him as they walked through the festival. "It'll be like going on that helicopter ride you and Luke went on last year."

"Oh, when I almost fell?" Nick retorted.

"Nick, calm down, alright? We've got kids," Luke chided.

"You had parachutes on just in case." Pete reminded. "Besides, why did you even stand near the open door to that helicopter?"

"Well, excuse me for not being aware!" Nick whined.

"Alright, everyone calm down before things get out of hand," Lee tried to break it up. He didn't feel like having any arguments ruin everyone's good mood.

"All right, all right." Pete sighed as he decided to drop it for now and continue their peaceful vacation. "You don't to go up in one of them if you don't want to, Nick."

"THANK you," Nick sighed. He did NOT need his mother to see another embarrassing photo of him.

"So, what does everyone want to do first?" Lee wanted to know.

Everyone answered with a variety of different options. Since they all wanted to do different things, like before, everyone split off into different groups and agreed to meet back up later. Lee was with Clementine, Sarah, Carlos and Astrid. Ed and Diana trusted Lee to take care of Clementine and decided they would meet up later.

There was a haunted house tour that they eventually decided to go through, although Sarah seemed a little afraid. But she would brave it out and followed everyone there.

Carlos was unsure if he wanted to send his daughter in there at first, but he decided that if she felt confident enough, he would let her. But he stayed close to her nevertheless. At one point, a random skeleton popped out from the ground that caused Clementine to fall over, but she was laughing a second later.

Lee snickered to himself as well as he helped Clementine up, and they continued on their way.

The rest of the haunted house was quite scary but at the same time, it was quite funny for all of them. They exited the haunted house and along the way, they noticed Luke, Nick and Pete walking inside. No doubt Nick was going to get scared.

The five of them decided to wait and listen for anything. And just a minute in, they heard a loud scream that undoubtedly came from Nick, and laughter coming from Pete and Luke. Lee, Clementine, Carlos, Sarah, and Astrid all began to laugh.

"It wasn't THAT scary!" Sarah exclaimed.

"This is one of the best vacations ever." Astrid spoke up in between laughs. She tried to calm herself down before she ended up laughing too much.

They decided to leave before they were discovered, heading off to some of the rides that they hadn't gone on yesterday (now that their stomachs were settled). Again, Carlos seemed reluctant.

They noticed one of those rides where you basically go inside, hold onto something and you keep getting spun around until you can no longer keep your balance. They would pass on that one for now and decided to look at the other rides.

"Hey Carlos, remember a couple of years back at the water park?" Astrid recalled with a slight chuckle.

Carlos sighed and placed a hand to his face. "Please don't remind me."

Sarah smiled, remembering that herself. She took Astrid's arm and pointed. "Look, what about that swing ride?"

"I'm up for it." Clementine agreed, but she could not help but wonder what happened at the water park. When the adults were not looking, she walked beside Sarah and whispered. "What happened at the water park?"

"We went on one of those water slide things with a little boat, and Dad got sick everywhere," Sarah made a disgusted face. "But he was okay, and it's funny to think about now. Don't tell him I told you."

"I won't." Clementine assured with a wink. She looked like she was dying not to laugh though.

"You girls up for getting on?" Lee asked them, pointing to the ride in front of them. It was the swing ride that Sarah pointed out, which basically brought you in the air and spun around in circles, kind of like a fast carousel, only a bit different.

Both of them nodded and got onto the seats once the adults paid as well. Lee and Carlos decided to get on as well, but Astrid did not like heights that much and decided to stay here and watch. This was also Lee's first time on one of these; Clementine could not wait to see his reaction.

Clementine turned around and called to Lee, who was sitting in the swing behind her, asking him if he was ready.

"Ready as I'll ever be, Clementine," he told her. After all, he wouldn't react like Nick...probably.

The ride started and they began to spin around slowly until it got quite fast that it made a few of them cheer and a few of them yell. To avoid the risk of losing her glasses, Sarah lent them to her mother until the ride was over. That way she did not have to worry about holding onto them.

"Woo!" Clementine cheered as they want round and round. She turned towards the older man sitting in the swing behind her and called out to him. "Having fun, Lee?!"

"Lots," was all Lee could manage. Truth be told, he was actually nervous that the swing would break off, seeing as a few people were trying to swing back and forth.

After a few minutes passed, the ride ended and the swings safely descended back towards the ground. The four of them chuckled slightly as they joined Astrid and began to walk through the festival. Astrid handed Sarah her glasses and the five of them continued to enjoy themselves.

"I think the cherry blossom parade is about to start soon," Lee noted, checking his watch and seeing that it was nearly 11:30 AM. "I think it's this way."

So the five of them walked, chattering all the way, and found a good area to stand. Omid, Christa, Mike, Bonnie, and Kenny and his family were standing there too. Omid had on another beer hat.

"Did you run home and get that?" Carlos asked Omid as they joined the others in the same area.

"Yep." Omid confirmed, this time he had a beer attached to his hat that he began to drink out from using a straw.

Christa sighed audibly and rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but look a little amused. Nearby, Duck was yelling that he wanted some cotton candy.

Kenny assured his son they would get some soon.

A couple of moments later, they noticed Carley, Ed and Diana joining the rest of the group in the same area to watch the parade.

"Hey everyone." Carley greeted as she stood beside Lee.

"Hey," Lee returned. "Did you guys hear Nick at the haunted house?"

"That was Nick?" Ed inquired, earning a mere nod from Lee and Carlos. "I thought that was Katie."

"It may be best not to give him a hard time about it," Katjaa interjected in between small laughs. "Ken, look, I think I see the first float."

Kenny picked up Duck and placed him on his shoulders so that he could get a better view.

"That's an amazing design." Astrid admired the float as she raised her camera and took a couple of photos.

"Look at all the flowers!" Sarah cried in admiration.

"I can't argue with that, Sarah." Bonnie agreed with a smile as she too admired the flowers.

They could see Doug, who had somehow appeared out of nowhere, watching from the other side. Of course he had his phone camera with him. He noticed his friends standing adjacent from him and panned to them, giving them a waved. They all waved back.

"He might as well just brought one of those cameras you record movies with." Astrid spoke up after taking a couple of more photos for now.

"I wonder how long every recording would be to make a movie," Diana added, blocking the midday sun with her hand as the next float came by. This one threw candy and cherry blossom petals.

"Clem, we should make flower crowns!" Sarah suggested excitedly.

"Sounds good to me." Clementine agreed, but she had no idea how to make those. "Do you know how?"

"I do." Bonnie assured as began to explain how.

"That sounds fun!" Sarah cried. "Maybe after the parade?"

She turned to her parents for permission, and they both nodded.

"Sure thing." Bonnie agreed with a smile. "I've been making those since I was five-years-old. It's easy."

The very eventful parade ended about half an hour later, and the group dispersed again. Carlos, Astrid, Ed, and Diana went to rest on some of the provided lawn chairs while Bonnie helped Clementine and Sarah make flower crowns. Lee decided to go off with Carley, Kenny and his family, Omid and Christa, and Doug while they were occupied.

"That was a fun parade." Carley spoke up as she placed her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

"Yeah, that was a good time," Lee agreed. "Well, what do you want to do now?"

"Well, I'm up for some cotton candy, and I'm sure Duck is too." Carley suggested, turning towards the young boy who looked excited for some candy.

"Ya!" Duck agreed.

"Alright, alright," Kenny agreed, looking a little restless. But he managed a smile at his son's enthusiasm.

Carley, Duck, Doug, and of course Omid decided to get their cotton candy, and the group continued to walk, finding something to do. There was a lot to choose from.

"We still need to let everyone know about the shirts," Katjaa reminded them.

"Shirts?" Doug replied after taking a bite out of his cotton candy. "What shirts?"

"I think someone mentioned that everyone should get the same shirt in their sizes, and on the last day we'll get a picture with everyone who came along together," Lee explained. "I think Astrid can hook that up."

With that, Doug brightened.

"Oh, yeah." Doug now remembered. For someone who knew a lot about technology, he had a hard time remember simple things. "Yeah, we should. Sounds like a great idea."

Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck went off to go on some rides, while the others entered a large tent, promoting a showcase event. It held all kinds of items from technology equipment to even cars, enough to catch everyone's eye.

"Wow, all of this stuff is great." Doug announced as he eyed one of the car radios.

Lee looked around and noticed a new printer that caught his eye. It could be used to print out his students' grades once the new school year arrived, but it was pretty expensive. Meanwhile, Carley was looking at some new microphones.

"This could be useful for work." Carley told herself as she rubbed her chin to help her decide. "Might give better sound quality."

Eventually, she decided to buy one that wasn't too expensive (as she wanted to save some money) and decided to check out what everyone else was looking at.

Doug was admiring the new phone that had been released recently and was debating if he wanted to get it or not. He already got two.

That is, until he looked at the cost. He shook his head and decided to get it another time when the price was a little lower. Nearby, Omid was giddily showing Christa all of the pet toys and beds.

After they were done in there, the portion of the group went into the next tent which was historical items. Lee and Omid were interested almost immediately.

Omid practically dragged Lee over to some Revolutionary War paintings, but the latter didn't mind since he was just as fascinated as Omid.

"The Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19th, 1775," Lee read the plaque at the bottom.

"Hey Lee, look at that." Omid pointed towards another area of the wall where an old musket hung on the wall

"Wow," Lee raised his eyebrows. This musket was from around 1830, according to the plaque, meaning that it wasn't from the Revolutionary War. "I think there are some old documents over here."

"Let's look them up." Omid suggested and they both went to read what it had to say. Everyone else decided to look around as well, including Christa.

There was nothing for sale here as there were only things on display, but nobody minded. Although Omid was desperately wishing for some of those paintings and that musket.

"Wouldn't mind that painting of George Washington on my wall," Lee commented as the group finally exited the tent.

"I wouldn't mind that musket on my wall." Omid added, earning a glare from Christa in response. "What? I didn't say I was going to shoot with it."

Christa was clearly remembering all of his little "accidents." But nonetheless, she wasn't going to worry about it and decided to enjoy their vacation.

After they were done looking inside of here, they eventually met up with the rest of the group, including Lee's family and explored the rest of the parade together. It turned out to be another great day until it slowly came to an end which meant it was time for them to head back to the motel. This has turned into the perfect vacation and everyone would not forget it when they got home.

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><p><strong>A-a-a-a-a-nd that's it for this chapter, folks. Long chapter indeed, but not the longest I've published. Longest I published was probably around 8,000 words on another story. Uh, nevermind. Anyway, next chapter will be here shortly. Be sure to leave a review otherwise I will eat your s-o-o-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-l. Just kidding.<strong>


	15. Chapter 15: returning home

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 15: returning home**

**Yo, what up, guys and gals, it's Assassin with Writer and welcome to the next chapter. Just thought I would give you a special shooout to you guys for reviewing the story up until this point. Thanks guy and gals.**

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><p>Two days later, it was time to head back home to Atlanta. As promised, everyone bought the same vacation shirt in their sizes, and Astrid rented a tripod to place her camera so they could all get a picture, which came out perfectly. She promised to send copies of most of the photos to everybody.<p>

"This is some cool shirts." Omid spoke up as everyone gathered outside the motel and waited for their bus to pick them up. It should not take too long, around fifteen minutes at the most.

"Always nice to have something to remember your vacation by," Christa agreed with a smile as she rubbed her stomach, containing her growing baby.

"This has been one of the best vacations ever." Clementine spoke up as she held her pink duffle bag over her shoulder and standing in front of her parents. "Thank you for a great time, Lee."

"No problem, Clem," Lee responded with a light smile.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled up, and everyone climbed inside.

"Time to head back to Atlanta." Bonnie spoke up as she placed her bag in the compartment.

The bus ride was quieter than the last one, but nobody really minded. Lee was sure that everyone was looking forward to going home at least a little bit. He knew he was. He decided to talk to Carley a little.

"So, got any plans when we get back to Macon?" Carley inquired as she leaned back against her chair.

Lee shrugged. "Not really. My parents do want me to call them once I'm back," he responded. "What about you? Are they making you go back to work right after?"

"Tomorrow." Carley answered which left her a little down since she just enjoyed a nice time with her friends.

"Oh...well, good luck," Lee gave her a nod.

Carley thanked him as the bus ride continued.

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><p>Two-and-a-half hours later, the bus pulled up to the end of the home neighborhood. Everyone told Lee how grateful they were for being invited and Lee thanked them all as they departed in different directions to their homes.<p>

"I'll get these printed off and send your photos to you soon." Astrid informed everyone as she, Carlos and Sarah walked towards their home.

Everyone looked satisfied, and went back to their homes. Omid was looking rather excited about seeing Whiskers again, since he had gotten him lots of kitty presents.

Lee entered his home and closed the door behind him. He didn't really plan on doing much right now.

First thing was on his mind was to call his parents like he promised. He picked up the phone and dialed their number.

It was Blake who ended up answering, despite the fact that he had called his father's cell.

"Hey, Blake," Lee greeted his brother.

_"Hey, Lee."_ Blake greeted on the other end. _"I take it you and your friends all got back safely?"_

"Yeah, we got back fine," Lee explained. "Astrid's sending us the photos she took."

_"That's nice to hear. Mom was asking if she could get a photo of Carlos on the rollercoaster."_ Blake chuckled.

"Oh, but I think the photo of Nick is better, Pete's sending that to everyone," Lee smirked. "You should have seen him in the haunted house the other day."

_"Yeah, his uncle told me he screamed like a girl."_ Blake replied, he too smirking on the other end of the line.

"So, anyway, what else is new?" Lee inquired as he took a seat on the couch.

_"Everyone's just tidying up for the festival, and mom and dad went to help out."_ Blake answered. _"They put me in charge of the store."_

"Yeah, I think this is the time of year where the pharmacy gets the most business," Lee nodded, remembering the days of his childhood. "Well, Blake, I'll let you get back to work. Say hi to Mom and Dad, alright?"

_"Will do."_ Blake replied. _"See you later, Lee?"_

"Yeah, see ya," Lee nodded, hanging up the phone. For now, he decided to just settle in.

Since it had been a while, Lee decided to check his laptop for any messages on his email that could be important.

It turned out that some of the virtual photos and videos had been sent (the printed ones would take a day or two). Lee couldn't help but feel a little awkward when he saw the photos of him and Carley. No doubt his friends would ask questions next time they saw him.

On his notifications, Lee noticed an uploaded video from Doug which contained the whole footage of their trip to Macon. He skipped ahead into the video when Doug began filming the airshow.

_Doug shifted his phone camera away from the airshow and shifted it towards the two sitting in front of him. "Hey girls, what do you both think of the airshow?"_

_"It's great." Clementine replied._

_"It's amazing!" Sarah added, waving to the phone camera happily._

_Then the camera cut to the Atlanta band playing in the battle of the bands, and everyone cheering. The camera turned to Duck, who was waving wildly while wearing his father's hat._

Lee chuckled as he watched the part when Doug turned the camera over towards him and Carley and asked them if they were enjoying the festival.

_"Are you gonna film everything?" Lee inquired._

_"Yep." Doug answered as he kept the camera focused on the two. "So Lee, Carley, are you both enjoying the festival?"_

_"I'm enjoying it." Carley responded with a slight nod._

_"I am too," Lee agreed._

_Doug turned his camera back to the upcoming band that was playing._

_There was another part too where Doug filmed the first-person point-of-view on the rollercoaster. It was pretty interesting, and lucky enough that his phone didn't fly out of his hand at all._

_"Woooo!" Doug cheered as the roller coaster went up and down. "I'm lucky they let me carry my phone on the ride! This is fun."_

_Lee could hear loud screaming coming from behind him, and at the end of the ride he turned and saw the flustered face of Nick, and the beaming face of Pete beside him. Luke and Duck were in front of them. Lee couldn't help but snicker._

_"You okay, Nick?" Doug inquired as he filmed them, but Nick covered his face and told Doug not to film him._

_Doug laughed, but let Luke and Duck give a wave before panning the camera away._

Lee decided that that was enough video watching for now and decided to check to see any new photos on Facebook.

There was one from Walter that showed him and Matthew standing in front of the ski lodge, dressed in their skiing clothes and with an arm around each other.

Lee liked the photo, and left a comment: _"Nice photo. Hope you two are enjoying yourselves."_

He scrolled down and saw the photo of Nick screaming on the roller coaster on Helen's profile.

There was a comment from Nick saying _"Ma...How did you get that photo?"_

And another comment from Helen as a reply to Nick, saying _"Your uncle Pete sent it to me."_

And the photo had about 20 likes. Poor Nick.

There was a photo from Clementine just to show people her new vacation hat. Lee never expected someone under fourteen to know how to use Facebook, but Clementine was a smart kid.

It was also her new profile picture. Lee left a like and continued scrolling, but there wasn't much else except for random statuses and mindless advertisements.

After he was done looking on the internet, he switched off his laptop and decided to watch a little TV for a while since he had nothing better to do. He was too tired to go out.

Lee lay down on the couch and ended up falling asleep to the TV, despite that it was only around eight at night.

But he found himself standing outside of his old house where he'd lived with his now ex-wife, Sam.

Without realizing it, he continued to step forward without any control of his legs. Then, that familiar sounds of moaning...

"I love you, baby," Sam could be heard giggling.

Lee groaned and tried to leave, but his legs refused to move. Instead, his hands grabbed right for a nearby baseball bat, and before he realized it, he had opened the door to the bedroom.

The state senator, Hans, was in the bed along with Sam, and Lee could feel himself moving closer and closer towards him, lifting the bat, despite Sam's yelling pleas...

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><p>Lee awoke with a start, placing his hand over his chest.<p>

It was all just a dream. It was clear that the thought of Lee seeing another man with his wife haunted him. He leaned up and checked the time to see it was 8:00 AM in the morning.

Lee blinked incredulously. "Was I really asleep for twelve hours?" he asked himself. He didn't remember being that tired...

He decided going for a walk in the fresh air would help clear his mind. He stepped out of his house and began to take a walk through the neighborhood.

But Lee couldn't help but think which wasn't helping too much. Would he have really killed Hans if he hadn't controlled himself? It was hard to tell. What's done is done. He walked away that day instead of giving in to his anger and he knew it was the right thing to do. He made a great choice moving here.

His life was a hell of a lot better with Samantha out of the picture. He was extremely glad that Kenny supported him through his rough time with her, also.

As he walked through the neighborhood, he looked across the street and noticed Kenny walking his dog through the neighborhood. To continue his walk and to have something to do, Lee offered Kenny to take Sam for a walk and allow Kenny to enjoy his morning.

"You sure, Lee?" Kenny cocked an eyebrow, although he trusted Lee with his dog.

"Yeah, I promise I'll bring him right back," Lee nodded.

"Well, alright then, I'll see you later?"

"Sure."

Kenny nodded and started off for home. Lee didn't mind walking Sam, he was a good dog.

Lee took Sam to the park where he sometimes liked to go for a nice day out. He looked up and noticed the store where Jane worked was open and that they sold breakfast bars. He was feeling a little hungry.

After tying Sam up outside (knowing that he wouldn't get into any mischief), he went inside and picked out two, a strawberry and blueberry flavored one each. He wondered if Kenny would mind if he got some dog treats for Sam.

Lee walked up to the counter where Jane was working again. Even though he never seen anyone else working here, he knew Jane didn't own the store.

"Lee, I haven't seen you for a little while." Jane greeted as she scanned his items.

"I just got back from Macon, with a good portion of my friends," Lee nodded. "So, how've you been?"

"Been doing good. Me and my sister went to a carnival the other day." Jane answered, but she was more interested in what Lee had just informed her. "You said to Macon? Was it for that festival?"

"Yup, some pretty interesting things happened," Lee commented with a snicker.

"Do tell." Jane requested as she handed him his food back that he exchanged with a 1 dollar bill. Breakfast bars usually cost 65 cent each, but there was an offer to get two for 1 dollar.

"Well, Luke's friend Nick got scared on a roller coaster and in a haunted house, and Doug filmed every little thing just to name a couple."

Jane chuckled slightly in response, but her interests picked up at the mention of Luke. "Isn't Luke the guy who usually wears an orange shirt with brown hair?"

"Yeah, that's him," Lee confirmed with a single nod.

"Hmm, I always found him to be cute." Jane admitted to herself until she realized that someone was here. She quickly attempted to change the subject. "Uh, uh. Who else went?"

Lee listed off everyone who went on the trip. Some of them Jane knew, others she didn't. But Lee knew that Luke liked Jane, and now that it was basically confirmed that Jane had a crush on Luke, well...he would drop it for now.

"Sounds like a fun vacation." Jane admitted, but she decided to let him go now and allowed him to enjoy his morning. "Well, I'll see you around sometime, Lee."

"See ya," Lee nodded, and walked out. He untied Sam and continued on their way.

Along the way, Lee looked over the street and noticed one of his students Arvo walking with his older sister Natasha who Lee had saw a couple of times.

Arvo and Natasha happened to be walking towards them. "Hey, Arvo, Natasha. How's your summer going?"

"Hello, Professor Everett." Arvo greeted before translating what Lee had to say to his sister. She didn't know how to speak English. "Summer is good, thank you. How are you?"

"I'm doing okay," Lee confirmed. Sam walked over to Natasha, who pet him gently.

Natasha petted him a couple of times and spoke a couple of words in Russian.

"She says he's a good dog, and asks if he's yours." Arvo translated.

"Oh, no, he belongs to my friend Kenny," Lee replied. "I can see that your English has gotten a little better."

"Yes, very." Arvo nodded. "So I got B in my exam results. That good?"

"That's very good. Congratulations, by the way."

"Thank you, Professor Everett." Arvo thanked as Natasha stood up after she finished petting Sam. "Natasha and I have to go to store. I can't wait to go back to university, _da_? Goodbye, Professor Everett."

"See you around, Arvo, Natasha," Lee waved slightly.

Arvo translated the words to his sister before they walked away. Lee told Sam to heel before they continued walking. He was nearing the neighborhood, and he was feeling better after that dream, so he decided that he should probably return Sam to his owners.

As he walked through his neighborhood, he noticed Lilly putting down some trash into her trashcan. Lee wanted to run away right now, but he was surprised when Lilly greeted him in a kind tone. "Morning Lee."

"Oh, uh, hi Lilly," Lee greeted in reply. "You ever find out who slashed your tires?"

"Yeah, I found out." Lilly replied. "It turns out some punk kids came by in the neighborhood. My dad caught them and told their parents. I, uh, guess I owe everyone an apology, huh?"

Lee shrugged. "You don't owe me anything. Kenny, though..."

"I'll apologize to him today." Lilly assured as she knelt down to Sam for a moment who was growling slightly. "Easy boy." she soothed and gently stroked his head. Lee was surprised to see it calmed him down and now he was looking happy again.

"Good boy," Lee praised the dog. He returned the conversation to Lilly as she was probably wondering why he had Kenny's dog. "I just offered to walk his dog," he confirmed.

"Oh." Lilly nodded in agreement. "So, how was the trip to Macon? Your family doing good?"

"They're fine. I know that you occasionally go there, right? For Warner-Robbins?"

"I know, but that doesn't mean I visit their drugstore." Lilly explained, placing a hand to her hip.

Lee shrugged, not exactly knowing how to comment. "Well, I'd better get Sam back to Kenny. Have a good day, Lilly."

"You too, Lee." Lilly bade him goodbye as she walked back into her home.

Lee went over to Kenny's and knocked on the door. An enthusiastic (as usual) Duck answered the door, Sam tackling him to the ground and licking him.

"Sam." Duck laughed as he took Sam's lead and stood back up. "Thanks Lee!"

Lee chuckled, and Duck ran off to play with Sam before he could say anything. He decided not to bother Kenny and Katjaa (who weren't around) and went home, wondering what to do for the rest of his day.

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><p><strong>That's the end of this chapter, fellow authors. It seems Lee still has haunted visions of his wife, let us hope he will fully forge them soon. Stay tuned for the next chapter.<strong>


	16. Chapter 16: Hero Lee

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 16: Hero Lee**

**Hey guys, what's happening? Assassin's Creed Master and A Writer With Mixed Interests here to deliver you another chapter. It's been a little longer than usual, but here we are. Enjoy reading and keep an eye on my story _The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival_. I will be updating a bonus chapter somewhere today.**

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><p>Although Lee was not that hungry, he decided to head to a local diner run by someone he knew that was not that far away. When he arrived, he sat in one of the booths to relax for a while. The only other people here were the owner and some random customer.<p>

The owner of the bar named Sarita decided to go over and greet him since there were no other customers to greet. "Hello Lee. It's been a while since we last saw each other."

"It has," Lee agreed. "How are you doing, Sarita?"

"I'm doing great." Sarita replied as she took a seat in the same booth. "Business is going good. How goes the university?"

"It's fine, but it's always nice to have the summer off," Lee replied.

"Indeed, but I like this place." Sarita replied.

"It's quiet, and nice," Lee agreed, clasping his hands together. "I just came back from Macon; it was nice to see my family again."

"Oh, I take it you went to see the Cherry Blossom Festival." Sarita assumed.

"Exactly," Lee confirmed. "There were twenty-five of us that went. A lot of things happened, but it was fun."

Sarita raised her eyebrows in interest.

"Sounds interesting." Sarita admitted as she poured herself some coffee from a jug. "So who went with you? The only neighbors of yours I can remember are Clementine, Ed, Diana, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, and Carley."

"All of them went, along with..." Lee listed everybody that came. Sarita suddenly remembered Luke, Nick, and Pete along with Doug, but she hadn't met anyone else. She lived in another neighborhood.

"Sounds like it was a fun time." Sarita assumed. "And how are your family?"

"They're great, business at the drugstore is going well too," Lee responded as Sarita passed him the other mug of coffee. "How's your family? They were coming to visit last time we talked, right?"

"Right, but something came up and they had to postpone it." Sarita explained that left her a little disappointed, but she understood.

"Sorry to hear that," Lee said honestly as he took a sip of coffee.

"It's okay. We can rearrange, right?" Sarita asked.

"Always," Lee confirmed.

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><p>The two of them talked for about twenty minutes, and then it was time for Lee to let Sarita get back to work. He gave her a tip - despite her kind refusal - and headed out.<p>

As he walked down the street, Lee noticed smoke in the distance and could not help but investigate. He quickly ran down the street until he came into contact with a burning apartment building with multiple firemen around the area.

"What's going on?" Lee inquired, talking to the nearest fireman.

"Sir, you need to stay back," the fireman replied.

"My baby! My baby is in there!" a woman cried as she desperately tried to get past them, but another fireman held her back.

"Ma'am, you need to stay back!" the fireman warned. "As soon as the fire dies down, we'll get in and get him!"

"Please, someone!" she begged as she tried to get past them, tears rolling down her eyes. "He's just a baby!"

Lee turned to the fireman that had warned him. "Come on, you heard that woman. Someone needs to get that baby out of there!"

As if on cue, the noise of a crying baby could be heard. The mother sobbed harder.

Lee knew that by the time the firemen put out the fires, it would have been too late. The baby would either be burnt by fire or choked by the smoke. He inhaled a deep breath and without thinking, he pushed past the firemen and charged directly towards the building.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" a fireman yelled, attempting to chase after him, but he stopped by the time Lee entered the building.

The chief of the firemen stepped up with a slightly worried expression. If he wanted to help get that baby out of there, he would have to help out this stranger. "Men, help die down those fires!"

Lee coughed by the heavy amount of smoke, hoping to God that he or anyone wouldn't pass out from smoke inhalation.

All around him, firemen were desperately trying to put out the many flames. Lee listened for the crying baby and walked towards the noise. The baby was on the second floor by a window sill, the fire creeping ever so close to it.

Without hesitation, Lee ran over and grabbed the baby, running out of the room before the fire could engulf them both. There was just one problem: The stairs were catching fire.

Lee held the baby close as panicked when the steps broken, leaving him trapped. He had to make a decision fast before it was too late. He took a few steps back as much as he could and ran towards where the stairs use to be, taking one big leap of faith. He almost did not make it and was forced to let go of the baby just as he made it to the other side. He hung on for dear life as he was able to climb up, pick up the baby and run back downstairs.

Much to everyone's surprise, Lee bolted back outside with the bundled-up baby in his arms, coughing hard from the smoke. The woman ran up, thanking him gratefully, and he handed her the baby.

"Are you alright, sir?" one of the firemen asked.

"Yeah...I'll be fine," Lee responded, coughing one more time.

"Oh, my baby!" the women cried with relief. "Thank you, thank you."

Lee was escorted over to the paramedics who sat him inside their van with a breathing mask to help with the smoke he inhaled.

The chief of the firemen joined him inside and took off his helmet. "You're a hell of a hero, son. This department needs people like you."

Lee tried to say, "Thanks," but it was a little hard to hear with the breathing mask on.

As a couple of minutes went by, a WABE van had pulled up and out ran a familiar face. Carley and her cameraman ran towards Lee with Carley jumping in the van.

"Lee!" Carley exclaimed, hugging him tightly until she realized he was using a breathing mask. "Jesus, you're a hero."

Lee hugged her back, but more gently. "I'll be fine, Car," he reassured her, although he was muffled.

"You saved a baby's life." Carley stated. "Listen Lee, I know this isn't the right time, but do you mind if we interview you? We want Atlanta to know they have a hero to look up to."

"She's right." her cameraman agreed.

"No, I don't mind," Lee told them. He didn't know if he was supposed to take the breathing mask off now.

"Excellent." Carley smiled. "Whenever you're ready."

It took a few minutes until the paramedics allowed Lee to leave without a breathing mask. He stood nearby with the women and her baby.

"This is Carley Mayman reporting live in downtown Atlanta." Carley began her lines as her cameraman filmed her. "After a fire was caused by a gas leak, a young baby only five months old was trapped inside with no help. When all hope seemed lost, local resident Lee Everett bravely ran inside despite the risks and saved the baby's life." she turned towards Lee and offered him the microphone. "Lee, is there anything you'd like to say?"

"Well, I saw the smoke and had to investigate," Lee explained. "I didn't know what was happening, but when I heard that woman and baby, I knew I had to do something. I couldn't let that baby die, even with all of the risks."

"You're a brave man, Lee and Atlanta needs to know." Carley praised him before she and her cameraman averted their attention over towards the woman. "Ma'am, is there anything you would like to say?"

"Yes." she nodded whilst holding her baby close. "When that fire started and I was separated from my son, I thought...I thought I was going to lose him. But then Lee, a complete stranger I never met in my entire life saved my baby's life. I would just like to say thank you, Lee. No words can express how grateful I am."

Carley nodded, and the WABE station turned to the details about the gas leak, which would be broadcast from the station on television. Carley, now off the air, walked over to Lee.

"Thanks for that, Lee." Carley thanked as she hugged him one more time. She held his hand and escorted him towards their van. "Come on, I'll give you a ride home."

Lee nodded and stepped into the back of the van with Carley and her camera man. The driver started the engine and began to drive them towards Carley's instructions. Along the way, Lee noticed Carley was texting on her cellphone a few times.

Lee wanted to ask why she was texting so fervently, but knew that it was probably none of his business. He leaned back and let them drive, glad that he had done something good today.

* * *

><p>As a few minutes went by, the van pulled in front of Lee's house and Lee and Carley stepped outside, but what Lee did not expect was to see his entire neighborhood standing in front of his house, cheering and clapping for him, including Larry.<p>

Kenny was the first to step up to him. "Carley told us what you did back at that building. Good job, pal." He clapped his best friend on the shoulder, and Lee returned a grin.

"Thanks, Ken."

"That was a great deed you did, Lee." Alvin spoke up as he patted him on the back a couple of times. "Rebecca and I would trust you with our baby any day."

"You're a brave man, and everyone here is proud of you, Lee." Carlos added with a smile across his face. Astrid and Sarah were standing beside him.

Lee thanked them, and went on to receive a lot of compliments and praise (although the one from Larry sounded slightly forced). Clementine hugged him and told him how excited she was when she saw the news.

"Lee, you're a great person." Clementine praised him as she released him from her hug.

Lee chuckled, not used to all of this. Not ever had he received so much attention at one time. "Thanks, Clementine."

Even a few of his friends who didn't live in the neighborhood were here too like Sarita and Jane.

"Nice going, dude!" Omid praised him as they shared a high five.

"That was a great thing you did, Lee," Christa added.

"I don't know you, but that was pretty brave," Jane's sister, Jaime, told him.

"She's right; I don't think I could ever do that." Jane agreed with her younger sister.

Lee shrugged. "I'm sure you could, you never know."

"Yeah." Jane rubbed the back of her neck.

For the next little while, everyone continued to congratulate Lee with Carley's cameraman filming the entire thing. This was turning out to be a great summer. First, he took all of his friends to Macon and now everyone was cheering for him for saving a baby's life. Life doesn't get any better than this.

Carley had to do another short report to finish off the story. A few of the people stood in the background waving to the camera, but it seemed as though both Carley and her cameraman were both used to this.

"And that's a wrap." the cameraman announced. "Thanks for the help, everybody, but we better head back to WABE HQ now." he shook Lee's hand before getting into the back of the van.

"I better go, too." Carley agreed as she leaned up and pecked Lee at the side of his cheek. "I'll see you later, Lee, and again, thanks."

"No problem," Lee gave a nod, watching as Carley and the cameraman climbed back into the van, heading back to WABE. He didn't realize that he'd stared after the truck until someone started waving a hand in his face. He looked down to see Duck looking up at him with a wide smile.

"You were awesome, Lee." Duck spoke up, bouncing up and down happily.

Duck held out his hand for a high-five, and Lee gave him one before the eleven-year-old ran back towards his parents.

After everyone was done cheering for Lee, they all eventually decided to depart ways and head back to their homes. Ed and Diana invited Lee to their home for a while to which Lee agreed since he had nothing better to do all day.

"Clementine was the one to see the news, and alerted us immediately," Diana explained as she placed a cup of coffee in front of Lee. "We saw it for ourselves and we couldn't believe it. Then Carley texted everyone in the neighborhood about it, and we figured we should congratulate you."

"Well, I appreciate it," Lee responded with a light chuckle.

"Of course, Lee." Ed replied as he took a seat next to his wife on the couch. "I can't believe people like you still exist. First you take us all for a great vacation and a day later, you have the life of a complete stranger. You're a great man, Lee."

"Oh, you don't have to-" Lee began, but Clementine cut him off.

"Of course we do, Lee." Clementine assured. "You've done so much for us out of the generosity of your heart, it's the least we can do."

Lee didn't feel like he deserved so much praised, but he was grateful for it. He gave Clementine a one-arm hug and tipped her hat over her face affectionately.

Clementine smiled as she leaned back up and adjusted her hat.

"I hope you like being famous, Lee." Ed chuckled after he took a sip of his coffee. "Celebrity's get a lot of attention."

Lee couldn't help but laugh at that statement. Him? A celebrity? Impossible.

"It's true." Ed replied after Lee was done laughing. "WABE's news spreads faster than the speed of light."

"And you know with Carley..." Diana trailed off, revealing a knowing smile. Most of the people in this neighborhood were wondering when Lee and Carley were officially going to get together.

Lee chuckled nervously for a moment as she took a sip of coffee and rubbed the back of his neck.

Clementine raised her eyebrows and matched the look on her mother's face, crossing her arms.

As a few awkward minutes went by, Lee thanked Ed and Diana for having him over and for the coffee, and proceeded to leave their home for the day.

When he got home and turned on the television, a rebroadcast of his story appeared on the news. The woman with her baby looked very relieved and grateful, which made Lee happy.

The camera moved over to a man with a long blonde hair and beard with glasses on with another man standing beside him. "Yeah, I lived in that apartment with my best friend Eddie, and when the fire started, we were like, so out of there. And when we saw that Lee guy running in there, we were like "Dude, you're crazy." but when he came out, I was like "Dude, you're awesome."

Lee cocked an eyebrow, but couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed. These two were clearly high, drunk, stoned, or all three. He didn't know how someone could handle drugs, and refused to do them.

"That dude was awesome! Atlanta needs more people like him." the man finished as he beckoned for his friend to follow him.

His friend, Eddie, tried to comment, but the blonde man pulled him away. Lee couldn't help but snicker, wondering how these two guys would react actually meeting him. While being pulled away, Eddie yelled out, "Rock on, Lee, dude! WOOHOO!"

Lee laughed as he continued to watch the news when the camera moved over to someone else, an Asian looking man. He did not look like he smoked drugs.

"Yeah, I live in the apartment building across the street. I was with my younger brother when we noticed smoke coming from the apartment across the road. We looked out the window when the fire started and then we saw the guy charge inside." the man replied as he went on and on. "We thought he was done for, but then we saw him burst out the apartment with the baby in his arms. That guy is one tough son of a bitch." he faces the camera. "If you're watching this, Lee, you're a great guy and deserve to be shaken by the hand."

"Aw, I'm flattered," Lee said to no one in particular with a small laugh.

Next, the camera panned over to some girl who looked to be about fifteen. Along her was Shel, whom Lee had met a couple of times. "So, uh, yeah...I thought that Lee guy was going to die, especially when the stairs collapsed," she said. "But I was pretty surprised when he actually got that baby out. Uhh...yeah. Good job, Lee."

It was a little surprising because she looked like one of those school bullies, but Lee appreciated it all the same.

* * *

><p><strong>That's it for this chapter, folks. Looks like Lee has just been granted a hero for saving a baby's life. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next chapter soon and don't forgot to check out Fight for Survival later.<strong>


	17. Chapter 17: Independence Day: Part 1

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 17: Independence Day: Part 1  
><strong>

**All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back with A fresh start with chapter 17: Independence Day. No, I don't mean the movie even though it was a great movie. I cannot wait for the sequel. Here's chapter 17, enjoy. **

* * *

><p>After watching TV, that was just about it for the news regarding his bravery. After that, he switched the channel over to other programs where he found a channel about funny videos complication.<p>

Lee couldn't help but laugh when he saw one video of a girl trying to balance on a large ball, but she fell face first into the wall in front of her.

On the next video, he noticed a video of a living room that looked very familiar. He could not believe that it was Omid and Christa's house. Omid was filming Whiskers who was sitting on the couch liking his paw.

_"Hey Whiskers...Whiskers..."_ Omid greeted as he began making clicking noises. He moved the camera a little too close and Whiskers knocked his paw against the camera screen, causing Omid to fall over.

Now Lee was laughing hysterically, as were the people in the background on the television. He got out his phone and texted to Omid: _"I'm not sure if you're aware, but Whiskers was just on TV. And an incident involving you."_

It took Omid a moment later to send a reply text: _"Yeah, I know, it happened last year; I sent it in to the people to try and win some money. I got one-hundred dollars."_

Lee smirked, and texted back, _"That's great, man."_

_"Hell, yeah!"_ Omid replied back.

And that was the end of that. Lee watched some more videos on the TV, some funnier than others. It even showed a clip from the Giant Mutant Spider Dog video from YouTube.

After a little while, the show ended and Lee decided to make some lunch. He stepped into his kitchen and decided to make a cheese sandwich.

He decided to make it grill it today on the stove, never a bad thing. He got out the bread, butter, and cheese and prepared his lunch.

After his lunch was ready, he sat at the dining table and his sandwich in peace. However, like every time he ate something in this kitchen, he would always feel alone and wished he had someone to share this house with. Maybe he and Carley...No, he didn't want to think that far ahead now, they only went on one date so far.

She was still working right now, so he couldn't exactly give her a call. But he couldn't help but think about his feelings about her. He really liked her, maybe even romantically. He still wasn't completely sure.

Well, he didn't want to jump the gun yet and decided to take it nice and slow like every relationship should.

He finished his lunch and placed his plate in the dishwasher, wondering what to do for the rest of his day. Hopefully he wouldn't have to be a hero again for at least a while.

Since it could be a while until he felt like playing hero again in downtown, he decided to simply get up and go out for a little while. He walked down the street with his hands in his pockets and decided he would just simply go for a walk. He didn't feel the need to take his car.

Lee decided not to go downtown and just took a walk around the neighborhood. It was a bit quieter than usual, which was nice. He looked at Bonnie's house and noticed some new plant areas in her front yard. She probably wanted to get started on that cherry blossom tree early.

He was enjoying a friendly walk in the neighborhood and felt relaxed by how peaceful it was. When his marriage broke up, Lee was certain he was never going to be the same again, but after moving her, meeting new friends and having people support him. And now they looked up to him as a hero of the neighborhood. Lee had the feeling everything was going to be great from now on.

* * *

><p>Nothing much happened for the next few days afterwards (except for getting some drinks with Kenny and Mike), and before Lee knew it, it was the Fourth of July, Independence Day. He woke up that morning wondering what would happen, and if Ed and Diana were still on about hosting the holiday at their house.<p>

He looked up at the time to see it was 10:00 AM and he knew Ed, Diana and Clementine usually got up early around 9:00 AM. He decided to give them a call and ask. After he got up and got a dressed, he dialed their house number and waited a few rings until someone picked up.

_"Hello?"_ Clementine spoke on the other end of the line.

"Morning, Clem," Lee greeted. "Happy 4th of July!"

_"You too, Lee."_ Clementine returned the greeting. _"I take it you want to speak to one of my parents?"_

"Yeah, I just need to ask a question."

Clementine told him to hold on, and then the phone was handed over to Ed.

_"Hey Lee, happy fourth of July."_ Ed greeted on the other end after he accepted the phone from his daughter.

"Yeah, you too, Ed," Lee responded. "So listen, about the fourth of July gathering at your house, is that still going on? Who's coming?"

_"We've invited everyone in the neighbor, except for Lilly and Larry, they're both on vacation."_ Ed explained on the other end. _"We've told everyone to be there for 1:00 PM. It's going to be great; Diana's really been looking forward to this."_

"I'll be looking forward to it, too," Lee nodded. "So I guess I'll see you all then. Should I bring anything?"

_"Bring some food or drink if you like, it's up to you."_ Ed answered. _"Well, I better help Diana and Clementine set up everything, we look forward to seeing you, Lee. Bye."_

"See ya," Lee replied, hanging up. He scanned his cabinets and fridge for anything that he could bring, and decided on an unopened bottle of cola. There would probably be some at the party anyway, but why not?

Since it was the fourth of July, everyone had the day off work and was free to do what they want. He decided to go to Carley's house for a while and maybe discuss their relationship for a while to see where they wanted to go with it.

He rang the doorbell, and Carley answered it. She was dressed but her hair was unkempt, not that Lee minded. "Hey, Carley."

"Hey Lee." Carley greeted as she opened the door and allowed him inside. The two took a seat on the couch. "What brings you to my lovely home?"

Lee shrugged. "Just thought I'd drop by, maybe talk a bit." He was still deciding how he was going to go to the conversation he wanted.

"Okay." Carley replied, tapping her hands for a moment when she ran out of things to say. "So, are you going to Ed and Diana's house party?"

"Yeah, Ed said that it starts at one," Lee explained. "I'm glad we live in a neighborhood with...hardly any problems." He chuckled, thinking about Larry.

"No argument here." Carley agreed as she took a sip of coffee.

After a moment of awkward silence, Lee spoke up again. "So-o-o-o...your boss isn't giving you too much of a hard time, is she?"

"Actually, we're starting to get along." Carley replied as she placed her cup of coffee onto the table. "Since the day you were on the news, we've been starting to work better."

"That's good to hear," Lee commented. He gave her a teasing smile. "Guess I can improve a lot of relationships, can't I?"

"You can say that again." Carley agreed with a slight chuckle. Speaking of relationships, she drifted back to another subject. "So, speaking of relationships, you and me...You know, we should go out so more sometime."

"Yeah, we really should," Lee responded with a light smile. "It went really well last time, perhaps do something different?"

"Sure." Carley agreed, returning the smile towards him. "Sounds like fun."

Lee nodded in relief, clasping his hands together. Now it was a little awkward, and he didn't know what else to say for just a moment. "Maybe we should take it slowly?" he suggested.

"Of course." Carley nodded. "Last guy I was with a year ago, wanted to marry me after one date."

"Really?" Lee asked almost incredulously. "That's crazy."

"Tell me about it." Carley replied, taking yet another sip out of her coffee. "But I know you're not like that, Lee, you're a good person."

"Thanks," Lee said for probably the billionth time that week. His family had found out what he'd done and had probably praised him probably the same amount of times.

"Oh, check it out." Carley said as she leaned over and grabbed a photo frame and passed it to Lee. "Astrid sent it to me."

It was the photo of Carlos on their way down the roller coaster. No doubt he and Nick were the laughing stock of the trip.

Lee took it and let out a laugh. Poor Carlos, at least he wasn't screaming like Nick had been. No doubt that another copy of the photo was in the Hidalgo family scrapbook.

Carley laughed too as she placed the photo down and picked up a photo album that she placed into her lap. "Astrid hasn't got the chance to send everyone their photos yet, including you, but want to have it look?"

"Sure," Lee responded, and Carley opened the album. The first photo was something that was somehow acquired of Nick, Luke, and Pete in the haunted house, Nick screaming in terror.

The two chuckled as they scanned through a couple of more photos. There were three photos of the mascot with their friends. The first one was Clementine and the mascot, then Sarah and the mascot, and then Kenny and his family.

"Astrid can take some great photos, can't she?" Lee commented as he turned the page, showing some of the family photos. The funniest one was of Omid showing off his new beer hat with Christa having a mixed look of amusement and disappointment.

"Oh, Omid." Carley sighed as they continued looking through the photos. Eventually, they got to the last picture where it showed everyone in their group with the same shirt on. The two smiled.

"That was a great time," Lee told Carley. "I'll look forward to when I get these."

"I'm sure you will." Carley agreed as she placed the photo album down before standing up. "Lee, remember on our first date you mentioned you wanted to see some of my art paintings? You still up for that?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Carley got up and led Lee down to her basement, turning on the light. She went over to a shelf and pulled down a somewhat large cardboard box.

She picked up the box and the two went back into Carley's living room and took a seat again. "It's been a while since I last saw these." Carley admitted, opening the box and revealing the art paintings.

Most of them were similar yet different; Carley seemed to like nature backgrounds. There were also some paintings of certain animals, and buildings.

"Wow, these are pretty good," Lee stated as he looked through them.

"You think so?" Carley inquired as Lee examining more of her old work. She never thought art would be her thing.

"Never thought of you to be the artsy type," Lee teased. Carley returned his smile, and shrugged.

"Neither did I." Carley agreed. "I know Astrid has a passion for art and I saw her painting a couple of times, I might show them to her and see what she thinks."

"I think she'll like them," said Lee. He looked at his watch; it was nearly 12:30. They would have to leave for Ed and Diana's house shortly. "Wow, this day is flying by."

"Really?" Carley replied as she looked over towards her clock to see it was in fact 12:30. "Wow, so it does. I need to go upstairs and sort my hair out. Make yourself at home."

"Alright," Lee responded, and Carley walked upstairs to get ready. He decided to look at the photo album a second time, and particularly enjoyed the one of Nick and Luke standing back-to-back, smiling, and Clementine and Sarah with their arms around each other with flower crowns in their hair. That one was cute.

Although he had a lot of favorite photos from their trip, the one he would remember the most would be the one of them all together wearing the same shirts. That one would be a picture he would remember forever. It was a great time and he hoped he could do it again one day.

Carley came downstairs a few minutes later, her hair brushed out and fixed now. Lee put the photo album away and got up.

"You want to come to my house until it's time to go?" he inquired. "It'll be a closer walk."

"Sure thing." Carley agreed as she picked up her jacket and placed it over her torso. She grabbed her keys and told Lee just to leave her art paintings in the box; she would put them away later.

Lee opened the door to his house and allowed Carley to step inside, feeling nice that he had some company at least for a little while.

Carley had only been in Lee's house a couple of times, but she enjoyed being here and thought it was nice of Lee to invite her. She took a seat on the couch when Lee offered her.

"Just as I remembered: a nice, clean and simple house." Carley stated as she examined his home. "You still got that guest bedroom?"

"Yeah, Clementine used it when her parents went away a few weeks ago," Lee responded. "It was nice to have her here...and she kicked my ass in Mario Kart." He snickered as he remembered that night.

Carley chuckled in response. "I remember when we first met and you told me you were thinking of changing it into a private bar. I take it that idea's gone now."

"I guess it is," Lee responded with a smirk. "It's all right though, the bar downtown is cheap enough when I need it...luckily that's not often."

"Here, here." Carley replied.

The two decided to relax for a while until the time turned to 12:55 PM and that's when they decided to head to Ed and Diana's house. Lee and Carley walked next door together and Lee was the one to knock the door. Diana was the one to answer.

"Hey, glad you two could make it!" Diana greeted pleasantly. "Come on in. Kenny and his family are already here along with Omid and Christa."

Lee and Carley followed Diana through her home into the back garden where the mentioned neighbors were. Clementine was helping her mother carry some food and drinks out, Kenny and Duck were playing football with each other, and Katjaa was helping Ed and Omid and Christa were simply talking.

"Hey, Lee, Carley!" Ed greeted as he messed around with his grill, trying to figure out why it was not turning on.

"Hey," Lee replied, and Carley nodded.

The doorbell rang, and Diana put down a bowl of salad. "Clementine, honey, can you get the door for me?"

"Sure mom." Clementine replied as she walked through the patio and into her home. She returned a few seconds later with the Hidalgo family following behind her. "It's Carlos, Astrid and Sarah."

"Happy Fourth of July, everyone." Carlos greeted.

Everyone returned the greeting. Carlos went to help Ed and Katjaa, Astrid and Carley began talking, and Sarah went to talk to Omid and Christa. After that, the doorbell was ringing about every other minute, with more people from the neighborhood showing up. It was no surprise that Mike and Bonnie had walked together.

So far there was Lee, Carley, Clementine, Ed, Diana, Omid, Christa, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Carlos, Astrid, Sarah, Mike, Bonnie, Ben and his family. It could be a little while before more people turned out so they decided to chill for now.

Everyone's attention turned towards Ed when the flames from the grill suddenly appeared, causing him to stumble back. "Almost lost my eyebrows there." he chuckled as he got back to his feet.

"Are you okay?" Christa called from where she was sitting with Omid and Sarah.

Ed just shrugged and called back that he would live. So far things were going well, just like Macon. It was nice to finally live a life where everyone wasn't at each other's throats.

"That's the third time my dad's done that." Clementine informed Lee as the two took a seat in a couple of lawn chairs.

"Not very good with grills, huh?" Lee smirked. "My dad and Blake are both like that too."

Clementine chuckled in response. "My mom told him to buy a new grill but he prefers keeping the old one, saying how it's a classic."

Lee grinned and leaned back, wondering if he would be the same way if he were a father. He'd always wanted to start a family, but Sam had never liked that...

No. If he could keep that woman out of his mind for this long, he could continue. For right now, he just wanted to have a good time with his friends.

"Lee? Lee." Clementine waved her hand in front of his face to snap him out of his thoughts.

"I'm fine, Clem, don't worry," Lee told the little girl, shaking his head quickly.

"Okay." Clementine replied before she walked away to go and play football with Duck.

Meanwhile, Lee went to go and speak with Carlos who was holding a bottle of water since he didn't drink.

"How're you doing, Carlos?" Lee inquired.

"I'm fine thank you." Carlos thanked as he returned the same question. "And how are you?"

"I'm doing okay. Glad to have a day off?"

"Yes, the hospital is very busy during the summer." Carlos answered before taking a sip of water. "It can get a little overwhelming."

"I hear you. Grading finals can be tough too, but mostly everyone did okay this semester."

"That's good to hear." Carlos replied and nodded in agreement.

During the couple of minutes, Alvin and Rebecca showed up, with AJ wearing a little American flag shirt that some of the women cooed over. Now they had to wait for Doug, and a couple other guests.

* * *

><p><strong>All right, that does it for this chapter, folks. The next part for this chapter should be out for tomorrow for Monday; best day of the week as I like to say.<strong>


	18. Chapter 18: Independence Day: Part 2

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 18: Independence Day: Part 2  
><strong>

**Monday...Everybody's favorite day of the week as I like to say. We're back with the next chapter, folks. Enjoy reading. While you guys and gals read, I'm off to watch this week's episode of The Walking Dead. Ciao for now.**

* * *

><p>"Aww, he looks cute, Rebecca." Clementine cooed as Rebecca and Alvin took a seat in some of the chairs scattered around the lawn.<p>

"Thanks, Clementine." Rebecca smiled as she sat AJ on her lap.

Lee looked over and couldn't help but smile slightly. He decided to go over and see if Ed needed any help.

"Hey, Ed. You, uh, look like you're having some trouble there."

"Yeah, the gas is refusing to stay on." Ed explained as he tried to get it working, and hopefully, wouldn't almost burn himself again.

"Here," Lee walked over to assist the other man.

The two examined it closely for a moment until they found the problem: there was a small hole in the tube of the gas that they were able to patch up with some duct tape.

"Thanks Lee." Ed thanked as he grabbed some food and proceeded to start cooking now.

Lee nodded, and wondered who to talk to now. He decided on Nick, Pete, Helen, and Luke who had just arrived. He walked over to the counter where they were standing and talking.

"Hey," he greeted with a nod.

"Oh, hey Lee," Luke responded.

"Hey Lee." Pete returned the greeting before taking a sip of beer.

"Nice to see you, Lee." Helen greeted with a smile.

"We were just talkin' about lighting some firecrackers," Nick told him. "So...if you hear any booming noises tonight, that's where it'll come from."

Lee snickered, and Helen shook her head.

"I'll keep note of that," said Lee.

"Just don't go blowing your fingers off, Nick." Helen warned her son with a small smile.

Nick rolled his eyes, yet he looked amused. "Quit worrying, Ma."

"You should have seen these two last year, Lee." Pete chuckled as he brought up an amusing memory. "They both brought a lot of fireworks and set too many of them off at once. They were so loud that everyone in the neighborhood dropped by their house to complain."

That made all five of them laugh.

"I can remember that," Luke confirmed.

"I think everyone here remembers that." Pete chuckled.

Lee smiled. Things like this made him wish that he had moved here sooner. Although Luke and Nick's antics may or may not have gotten to him at the time.

"Were you drunk?" he wanted to know.

"Wasted," Nick stated.

"And you haven't got drunk since that day." Helen chuckled as she patted her son on the shoulder. Since that day, she had been keeping a close eye on Nick to make sure he didn't drink too much whilst Pete kept his eye on Luke as well.

Nick shrugged. He still hated it when his mother has him the stink eye when he had a beer, though.

Lee decided to leave them alone for now, and walked off.

He decided to go and talk to Omid and Christa for a while, who were both talking among themselves and both carrying a glass of wine.

"Hey," Lee greeted as he took a seat by Omid.

"Hey dude." Omid greeted before taking a sip of wine.

"Omid's been looking forward to today for the past month," Christa pointed out. "We have our house decorated..." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I'm just celebrating the holiday, babe." Omid explained as he leaned over and pecked her cheek.

"Well, have fun taking it down tomorrow," Lee teased.

Saying this caused Christa to sigh and place her head down on the table. It was bad enough putting them/

"Oh, come on, Christa." Omid replied as he playfully nudged her. "It's not that bad."

"Send me some pictures tonight?" Lee suggested with a smile, as Christa sat up and rolled her eyes.

"Will do." Omid grinned as he saluted Lee. However, when he made sure no-one else was in hearing range, he and Christa held hands and decided to inform Lee of some news. "Hey Lee, Christa and I have got something to tell the whole neighborhood when everyone's here."

Lee raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Can't wait to hear it."

Omid nodded in agreement and he and Christa turned towards one another with a smile before sharing a quick kiss.

In the meantime, Lee went to go and talk to some of the over neighbors. He approached Mike, Bonnie and Mark who were all speaking to one another.

"Hey, Lee," Mark said with a nod.

"Hey. How's your holiday?" Lee asked all three.

"Going great so far." Mike replied after taking a sip of beer.

"Glad we got today off." Bonnie added.

Since Lee was willing to get to know some neighbors better, he decided to ask some questions. "So, where do you work, Bonnie? Mike?"

"I work in the local construction industry downtown." Mike answered. "I've been working as construction all my life."

"I work as a gardener for anyone who needs stuff planted in their homes." Bonnie added with her small smile. She always loved gardening.

"Sounds nice," Lee replied. "Mark, how's the pilot job going?"

"It's fine," Mark shrugged. "It's better now that Lilly isn't yelling all that much lately."

"No argument here." Mike agreed, raising his drink for a moment before taking a sip.

After about an hour, Ed finally got the food ready. Diana and Clementine set the large table outside, and Diana called everyone to eat.

A few more neighbors had arrived during that time and now everyone was gathered around a large table in the middle of their backyard. Lee took a seat in between Carley and Clementine.

"May he say grace?" Ed requested as he took a seat next to his wife. "Lee, since you were the one who gave us a great vacation and saved a baby's life, would you do the honors please?"

"Sure thing," Lee responded. Everyone held hands and bowed their heads. "Dear Lord, we thank you for all the blessings you've given us in our lives. May this food nourish our bodies and give us strength. Amen."

"Amen," everyone else repeated.

"All right everyone, dig in." Ed announced as he grabbed himself a burger and some fries.

Everyone did so and grabbed their food and placed them onto their plates, enjoying the delicious taste.

"This is some great food, Diana." Alvin complimented as he grabbed himself some sandwiches.

"Thank you," Diana responded as she put some salad on her plate.

"Hey, Omid didn't you and Christa say you had something to tell us?" Kenny inquired.

"Oh, yeah, um." Omid scratched the back of his head and turned towards Christa, who nodded to tell him to continue. He turned towards their hosts. "Hey Ed, Diana, mind if I make an announcement since everyone's here?"

"We don't mind," Diana confirmed. Then, Omid called for everyone's attention.

Omid stood up with Christa and picked up his glass and tapped his spoon against it a couple of times. "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. I would like to thank Diana and Ed for inviting us here today, and I would like to announce to something. Christa and I have kept this a secret for the past two months but...We're having a baby!"

Chatter could be heard from everybody, and if Larry had been home, he would have opened the door to his house and yelled for them all to be quiet. Omid got a lot of slaps on the back, and most everyone began praising Christa. Omid lead back on his chair and put his arms under his head, grinning widely.

"Congratulations, you two will make great parents," Lee praised. He secretly wondered how Omid would act as a father, but he was sure that he would be great.

"Thanks Lee." Omid thanked as the two took a seat again with the others.

"If you guys need any parent advice, you can come to us." Ed offered with a smile.

"We'll make note of that," Christa responded. She announced to everyone, "And our baby will NOT be called Omid Junior." She turned to Omid and raised a smirk.

"Aww." Omid whined, but he was grinning of course.

That made most everybody laugh, and those who didn't were smiling. Then, the conversation turned somewhere else.

"How about Luke and I be in charge of the fireworks?" Nick asked.

"No!" Pete and Helen declined, not wanting to make the same mistakes as last year.

"Those were really loud last year," Sarah pointed out.

"Nope, someone else is going to be in charge," Mark put his fork down and crossed his arms.

Luke and Nick whined and crossed their arms with a disappointed look across their faces.

"You guys did wake the whole neighborhood that night." Carlos reminded them but he had a grin across his face.

"How do you know it was the WHOLE neighborhood?" Nick chastised him.

"Well...when you have at least 25 people show up to your house in their pajamas...you do the math," Diana pointed with a small laugh.

"I even have a picture to prove it." Astrid added whilst she poured some sauce onto her hot wings.

"What picture?" Luke inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Astrid got out her phone and set it up, and then passed it on to Luke, whose eyes widened. "Oh."

"A good thing Astrid lakes to take pictures." Doug chuckled from nearby. He was too busy putting some salt on his steak.

Everyone agreed, and everyone who had been by their house had seen all the photos and paintings on their walls and tables.

"Everyone's gotten their photos, right?" Lee wanted to know.

"Yep." Astrid confirmed. "I kept a list of everyone's names in the neighborhood, and one by one, I sent them all the photos."

Carley mentioned that she kept the photos of Carlos and Nick on the rollercoaster in frames, causing everyone except for them to laugh. Carlos placed his head in his hands and Nick looked down at his plate.

"This is almost as bad as the water park incident." Carlos sighed as he rubbed his hand against his head.

"It's okay, Daddy," Sarah tried to comfort him. "...But it was still funny though."

"Yeah, I guess it was, Sarah." Carlos admitted as he rubbed his hand through his hair. "Well, I suppose I'll look back on it one day and laugh."

Duck wanted to know if they could use the sparklers after the meal was over. That got Clementine and Sarah pretty excited too, and they all turned and asked their parents in an optimistic tone.

"Alright, Duck, just don't hurt yourself," Kenny nodded at his son.

"Okay Clementine." Ed nodded.

"All right, sweetie, you can join them." Carlos allowed.

It would be getting dark shortly anyway. About ten minutes later everyone cleared their plates, and the kids wanted to know where they could get the sparklers. There was also a debate on who would be in charge of the fireworks.

"Does anyone know anything about lighting fireworks?" Carley asked everyone before nodding towards Luke and Nick. "Except for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum over there?"

"Huh?" both men looked confused at the nicknames.

"I could handle it...probably," Lee spoke up.

"You sure?" Ed asked, placing his hands to his hips.

"I handled it when I spent my Independence Day in Macon," Lee explained.

"Okay." Ed nodded as he proceeded into his home to fetch the fireworks.

Astrid took the time to take some photos. "Get together you three." she requested to Clementine, Sarah and Duck.

The kids obliged, holding up their now-lit sparklers with wide grins on their faces, standing in front of the tree which held Clementine's treehouse. Astrid snapped the picture and looked at it, smiling in satisfaction.

"Perfect." Astrid smiled as she lifted the camera down.

Clementine, Sarah, and Duck proceeded to run around the backyard with their sparklers, with shouts from all of their mothers to be careful. Lee helped Ed set down the fireworks near the corner, so nothing would get destroyed.

"You do this every year?" Lee inquired as he dug out some matches.

"Yeah, but we usually don't use this many." Ed replied as he finished setting them down in the right position. "We did it last year, but then a certain pair of farm boys decided to launch a hundred fireworks at two in the morning."

"Wow. Wish I could've been here to see it...but at the same time, I don't," Lee responded. "Astrid needs to show everyone that picture."

"No argument here." Ed agreed with a slight chuckle.

The two of them finished off setting up the fireworks, and got done by the time it got dark. Ed had to occasionally tell Clementine to be careful as she and her friends were still running around and chasing each other with sparklers, but she and the others seemed to be okay.

Now that it was dark, everyone gathered around at a safe distance and prepared for the fireworks to start. Ed and Lee were standing by the fireworks with Ed standing on the table. Diana had warned him not to fall off like last time.

"Everyone, here's to a happy fourth of July!" Ed cheered as he raised a glass of wine in the air. "Lee, do the honors please."

Lee nodded, and lit the match. He set it down to the first fuse and ran off, standing near Clementine (who still had her sparkler). The rocket went off, and exploded into many different colors in the nighttime sky.

Everyone cheered as the remaining fireworks blasted off into the air, and no-one was surprised to see Astrid taking photos whilst Doug recording everything, but this time, he was using a proper camera.

In the distance, they could see other fireworks being shot off. Bonuses were always pretty cool. Lee lit matches several times and lit the fuses, at the same time wondering how Ed and Diana had acquired all of this.

Whilst the fireworks blasted in the sky, Doug shifted his attention over towards a few of his friends. First, he moved the camera towards Clementine and Sarah. "Hey Clem, Sarah, you both enjoying the fireworks?"

"Yep." Clementine smiled.

"I am!" Sarah chirped.

Doug nodded once and turned the camera over to Carley and Mark, asking them the same question. Both answered with a yes.

And then he proceeded to turn the camera towards Kenny and Katjaa. "Hey guys, enjoy the fireworks?"

"Hell yeah!" Kenny nodded, raising his beer bottle. His other arm was slung around Katjaa, who gave a much calmer, "Yes."

Throughout most of the night, the group enjoyed watching the fireworks display glorious fireworks across the sky. A perfect day for everyone to get together for this perfect celebration.

It was around 10:30 PM when everyone started heading home, but not before Astrid showed everyone the photo of when Luke and Nick woke everybody up with their fireworks. Lots of unhappy and tired faces in that photo.

Nevertheless, everyone laughed at the photo. But once their laughs were over, the entire neighborhood headed back to their homes for the night.

Lee thanked Ed and Diana for inviting him, and said good-bye to Clementine before heading out. He was feeling pretty tired, and hoped that no firecrackers coming from the house of a certain pair of farm boys wouldn't wake him up.

After a glorious day with his friends and family, Lee stepped into his home, locked the door, got changed and practically collapsed onto his bed. Life didn't get any better than this. It was hard to believe a while ago he lived with his ex-wife with not that many friends, but now he lived in a great neighborhood with people who treated him like family. Lee hoped life would be this great for the rest of his life.

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><p><strong>That's a wrap for this chapter, folks. Hope ya'll enjoyed and don't be afraid to hit that review button from time to time. The next chapter will be here soon.<strong>


	19. Chapter 19: babysitting

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 19: babysitting**

**Yo, what about, everyone, chapter 19 here. Now I know we've mainly focused on Lee on this story, but there will be some chapters focused around other characters soon. In the meantime, enjoy the chapter.**

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><p>Nothing happened for the next few days following. As much as Lee enjoyed having the summers off, it got a little boring once in a while. He figured out what to do today, until he thought of something. He remembered his talk with Carley on the 4th, but then again they decided to take their relationship slow. Lee was not that type of person who wanted to marry after the first date that was for sure.<p>

So today he decided to ask Carley if they wanted to go on another date, but instead of doing to dinner, they could go somewhere else. Like the movies, cruising, anything that popped into Lee's morning. Since it was early morning, he decided not to ring her yet and simply got up and sat in his sofa for a while.

Sure enough, after about an hour, Lee heard a vibrating noise coming from his phone. Surprisingly, it was a text from Carley.

Lee didn't expect Carley to be up this early, but nevertheless, he opened up her message. _"Morning Lee, how's things?"_

Lee turned the TV down slightly and responded, _"Fine, just watching a little TV. What are you up to this morning?"_

_"Just getting ready for work."_ Carley answered. _"Lucky you don't work in the summer because you're a teacher, Everett."_

Lee snickered to himself. _"Oh well, too bad,"_ he teased.

_"Ha-ha."_ she replied._ "Well, I best get off to work, give me a call sometime."_

"Will do," Lee wrote. He put his phone away for now.

The first thing on his mind was breakfast. He did not feel up to cooking anything right now, so he simply made himself some cereal.

As Lee was eating his breakfast, his phone rang. Looking at it, he saw that it was Carlos. He answered it and held it up to his ear.

_"Good morning, Lee, sorry if I woke up."_ Carlos greeted on the other end of the line.

"Nah, you didn't," Lee waved his hand at nothing in particular. "What's up, Carlos?"

_"Um, I'm sorry to ask, but I have work this morning and Astrid has had to go and help her mother."_ Carlos began to explain the details before he just came out with the truth. _"I was just wondering, can you please watch Sarah? Just until 4:00 this afternoon?"_

Lee thought this was a bit odd, since Sarah was about fifteen (at least he thought so). But he decided that he might as well, since he had nothing else planned for today. "Sure, I can watch her. What time do you want me there?"

_"Can you come at nine?"_ Carlos requested.

Lee looked at his clock beside him to see it was 8:40 AM.

"Sure," Lee responded. "I'll see you then."

_"Thank you, Lee, I really appreciate this."_ Carlos expressed his gratitude before he hang up the phone and go and get ready for work.

Lee finished his cereal and placed his dishes in the sink, reminding himself to run his dishwasher later. He went upstairs to get ready for the day, only taking ten minutes. When he checked the clock, it was 8:52 AM.

He walked down the street towards Hidalgo family's home and knocked on the door a couple of times. He checked his watch to see it was 9:00, right on time.

The door opened and standing there was Carlos. "Lee. Again, thank you for doing this." Carlos thanked yet again as he placed on his coat. "You know how to take care of children? Have you ever done it before?"

"I was asked to watch Clementine while her parents were away," Lee responded. "I think I can handle it."

"Okay." Carlos seemed satisfied with his answer. He made his way back into the living room where Sarah was eating her breakfast whilst watching the TV. He placed his hand upon her shoulder and knelt down. "I'm going to work now, sweetie, be good for Lee until I get back okay?"

"Okay, Dad," Sarah gave her father a smile. Carlos nodded and patted her shoulder, heading out the door. Now, Lee and Sarah were alone. Sarah put down her bowl of cereal, looking at Lee. It was slightly awkward since they hardly interacted.

"Sooo." Lee trailed off and didn't exactly know what to say at this point. "Enjoying your time off school?"

"Uh-huh," Sarah nodded, feeling slightly shy. She twirled her hair with her finger. "Umm...thank you for taking us to Macon. I had fun." She gave him a smile.

"Of course." Lee nodded with his usual warming smile. He turned towards the TV. "So what are your watching?"

"Aladdin," Sarah responded, and Lee turned to the TV, where the genie was just being introduced to Aladdin. "Have you ever seen it?"

"I think so; I think I watched it with my family when I was a kid." Lee recalled as he thought back to the old days back in Macon.

"I liked your family," said Sarah. There were a couple minutes of silence. "Lee? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure you can, Sarah." Lee assured.

"Do you...do you like Carley? And not like just a friend. I mean, LIKE, like her. As more than a friend. Clementine said you did."

Lee had to think about that for a moment. They only been on one proper date so far and there were a chance they would go on another date today. "Yeah. I'd say I LIKE Carley."

"Really?" Sarah inquired with a beaming smile on her face. "That's so cool! I think you guys would be so cute!"

(As usual, I'm heading offline for sleep. I hope to continue more soon,"

"Ha, me too, Sarah." Lee agreed, he too smiling.

After a couple of minutes, Sarah finished her breakfast and placed her dishes in the kitchen sink. She was already dressed and ready for the day, so she returned to the living room where Lee was.

"So, what do you usually do?" Lee inquired as she took a seat on the opposite couch.

"Umm...not much during the summer," Sarah responded. "At the end I always go help my mom set up her classroom. But I like to read, and watch movies sometimes. She looked over at the older man. "Do you like to read?"

"Yeah, I love to read." Lee replied with a nod. "I sometimes like to go and read while sitting in the park during a sunny day. Reading's good, helps build up your intelligence and knowledge."

Sarah beamed at that. She reached over to the coffee table and held up a hardcover novel. "This one's called _The Guurgles_. It's about trans-dimensional body-snatchers. It's my favorite!"

"Sounds like an interesting book." Lee admitted with a small smile. "How far are you into it so far?"

"I'm on Chapter 7," Sarah explained. "The last of the body-snatchers just escaped the hospital morgue right before he could get caught. It's really cool!"

"I might have to buy that book some time." Lee replied. It peaked his interests.

"I think you would like it," Sarah confirmed as she placed the book back onto the coffee table. "I hope you tell me what you think of it."

"Will do." Lee nodded. But now they were back to the awkward silence again. "So, how long have you and your parents lived in this neighborhood?"

"All my life," Sarah told him with a smile. "I think Mom and Dad moved when Mom was pregnant with me. I'm not sure though."

"That's good, this is a nice neighborhood." Lee replied as he looked out of the window for a moment where there was a view of the houses in the neighborhood.

Sarah nodded in agreement. There was another moment of silence until the doorbell finally rang. The young girl looked a little confused, maybe it was because her family hardly got visitors during the day.

Lee stepped up to answer the door and looked down to see it was Clementine, who looked up towards him with a slightly puzzled face.

"Lee?" Clementine questioned as she looked at the house for a moment. "I didn't get the wrong house again, did I?"

"No, Clem," Lee assured with a smile. "Carlos wanted me to watch Sarah. How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks." Clementine replied as she returned the same question. "And how are you, Lee?"

"Fine," Lee nodded. "You...want to come in?"

"Sure" Clementine replied as she walked inside when Lee held the door open for her. "Astrid asked if I wanted to come around for a while today. Where is she and where is Carlos?"

"Carlos had to work, Astrid's helping her mom," Lee told her as she walked inside.

At that moment, Sarah got up from the couch and ran to greet her friend. "Hi, Clem!"

"Hi Sarah." Clementine greeted as the two shared a quick hug which caused Lee to smile. The two took a seat on the couch.

"You girls have been friends for long?" Lee inquired as he took a seat in the armchair.

"Yep." Clementine confirmed with a nod. "Our parents moved into the neighborhood around the same time. Sarah and I use to play a lot when we were little, and our parents are good friends. And we've been best friends ever since."

Lee smiled again, it seemed like Clem and Sarah was going to be friends for life. He hoped so.

"I wish we were the same age," Sarah spoke up. "But I like having a friend that's younger than me too. We also play with Duck sometimes."

"Yeah, but not that often." Clementine replied. Even though she found Duck a little bit annoying at times, she and Duck were best friends too and were like family. "It's nice."

Aladdin finished a few minutes later, and Sarah shut off the TV and looked at Clementine. "I told Lee about The Guurgles. He says he might get it!"

"It does sound interesting," Lee commented.

"The Guurgles?" Clementine repeated when that name sounded familiar. "Isn't that the book about the trans-dimensional body-snatchers?"

Sarah nodded vigorously. "Yeah, this one!" She held up the book for her younger friend to see.

"Oh." Clementine nodded. "When you're done reading, mind if I lend it?"

"Yeah. I'm on Chapter 7 right now," Sarah replied. Then she turned to Lee. "Oh yeah, when we were in Macon I got a snow globe of the city. It's in my room, do you wanna see?"

"Sure, Sarah," Lee told her. The fifteen-year-old ran upstairs to her bedroom and returned a minute later with the said item.

"Hey, that's pretty cool." Clementine complemented as she examined the inside of the globe before handing it over to Lee.

Lee looked into the snow globe, Macon looking just as he remembered. For some odd reason, it made him think of his childhood. After turning it upside-down and right side-up, he handed it back to the giddy teenager. "Pretty cool, Sarah."

"I know, right?"

"When we were in Macon, my parents and I all brought some of those glass decorations." Clementine added. "And we've all got our shirts and photos."

As if to elaborate, Sarah picked up a framed photo from an end table of everyone who had gone on the vacation, wearing the same shirts. "It was amazing. Even though Mom keeps showing Dad the picture of him on the roller coaster." She giggled.

"That was funny, but it wasn't as funny when Nick screamed...Twice." Clementine chuckled as she recalled that memory.

"Your dad thought it was Ben's sister," Lee pointed out.

That got a laugh out of all three of them.

"That was one of the best vacations ever." Clementine replied after her laughter died down. "I hope we can go again."

"Maybe we will, Clementine," said Lee. "Maybe I can get us further, even. But I'm not sure."

"I still remember beating you guys at soccer," Sarah stuck her tongue out playfully, and turned to Clem. "Remember, Clementine?"

"Yep, we beat them." Clementine recalled with a playful smile as well.

Lee rolled his eyes with an amused look on his face. "Whatever you say, girls."

"We won the game and you lost." Clementine sang in a playful tone, but she was only kidding around.

"Yeah!" Sarah added in the same tone, but she was also smiling. She wasn't one to rudely make fun of someone for losing.

"But it was fun." Clementine added. "We had a great time in Macon, it was fun."

"Glad you girls enjoyed," Lee nodded. "So...anything you want to do now?"

Sarah shrugged, not really knowing how to answer.

"We could go for a walk." Clementine suggested with a slight shrug.

"If you want, sure," Lee stated. "That okay with you, Sarah?"

"Okay," Sarah responded.

So the three of them left the Hidalgo's family home and decided to walk through their neighborhood. Carlos did request that Lee take care of Sarah, but surely he wouldn't mind if they just went for a simple walk through the neighborhood. Plus, he never mentioned where Lee had to take care of her.

A Frisbee could be seen flying through the air, which nearly hit Clementine in the face had she not caught it in time. The three of them could see Duck and Sam running towards them, with Kenny giving chase. The young boy stopped to greet them.

"Hey Lee, Clem, Sarah!" Duck greeted as he accepted the Frisbee back from his friend.

"Hey Duck," Lee returned the greeting.

At that moment, Kenny caught up with his son. "Hey, Lee. Hey, girls. Goin' for a walk?"

"Yeah, figure we might as well leave the house," Lee responded.

"Dad and I are playing frisbee with Sam." Duck spoke up in his usual happy tone.

Sam walked over towards Sarah and sat down in front of her, happily panting with his tongue going in and out of his mouth.

Sarah knelt down and began to pet Sam, and looked up at Kenny. "He's soft."

"Yeah, we just gave him a bath earlier...Katjaa had to stay home to clean it," Kenny chuckled.

Although Sarah was not much of a dog person considering the fact that she owned a cat, she still enjoying petting him.

"How is Katjaa, Kenny?" Clementine inquired.

"She's good, got a promotion at work the other day," Kenny responded, as Sam walked back over to him. "Well...she's not too happy about having to mop up the bathroom, but still."

This earned him a couple of laughs from everyone present.

At that moment, Duck threw the Frisbee and in a random direction and Sam went running after it. He returned only a moment later with the Frisbee in his mouth that he set down in front of Kenny.

"Good boy," Kenny praised. "Well, Lee, girls, I think we better head off. Have a good day."

"You too, Ken, Duck," Lee nodded, and the three continued down the sidewalk.

"Bye." Clementine waved at them as they walked away from their sights.

As they walked a little ways, Lee turned and noticed a car in one of the driveways. "Huh, looks like Lilly and Larry are back from their vacation.

Sarah placed a hand on her other arm as they walked past. "Larry's mean though. Dad told me it's because if his heart condition, but I don't know."

"Didn't he use to be in the army?" Clementine asked Lee as if he would know. She never talked to Lilly and Larry that much.

"Yeah, Lilly said that Larry retired," Lee explained. His attitude wasn't all too surprising.

"And that was because of his heart problems, right?" Clementine added with a curious eyebrow raised.

"Think so," Lee confirmed.

At that moment, the three of them decided to continue their walk through the neighborhood for a little longer until Lee decided to take them back to the Hidalgo's family house.

"I like walking," Sarah spoke up as she took a seat back on the couch. Her cat, Pepper, jumped up onto her lap.

"Walking is good exercise my dad use to say." Clementine agreed as she took a seat next to Sarah. Lee took a seat on the armchair.

Just to start a conversation, Sarah told the story about her cat. "...I would always bring a different cat home like every two weeks, but my mom and dad always said no. But then my birthday came, and Dad got me Pepper. I was like, eleven I think. Hey Clem, do you remember when you helped me hide some of the kitties in my room?"

"Yeah." Clementine chuckled as she thought back to that day. "When I was eight and you were twelve, we tried to hide them until they grew up and were able to take care of themselves. Carlos caught us, but Sarah and I gave him the famous puppy-dog look. He agreed to help us give them a home."

Lee could not help but smile. The two girls had big hearts and meant well.

"Sounds like you had a nice time with that, girls," he commented. "I remember my brother Blake and I always wanted a dog, and we'd beg our parents. But they'd always say no."

"Did you ever get one?" Sarah asked as she and Clementine stroked Pepper.

"No. My mom did eventually get us some gerbils, though," Lee chuckled.

"I don't like gerbils." Clementine admitted as she shuddered slightly. "That remind me too much of mouse."

"Didn't you have a hamster, though?" Sarah wanted to know. "I heard he ate all your cookies."

"I like hamsters." Clementine explained. "And yeah, he did. He got out on his own."

"We used to have a goldfish too, until Pepper ate him," Sarah remembered as she scratched her cat's ear.

Lee couldn't help but snicker. "How did she get into the bowl?"

"I don't know," Sarah frowned. "We all heard a noise and went downstairs, and Pepper was eating our fish."

"Aww." Clementine smiled whilst thinking back to yet another memory. "Hey Lee, you should have seen Kenny's dog Sam when they first brought him. Omid was taking his cat outside; Sam saw him and ran away."

"Really?" Lee inquired with an eyebrow raised. "How long ago was this?"

"A couple of years ago. Three or four, I think." Clementine answered, having to think hard for that question.

"Omid dressed his cat up for the fourth of July a few days ago," Sarah recalled. "It was really funny. He put a beard on him and everything! ...But then the cat clawed him." She shuddered.

"Let that be a lesson to both of you, never dress up animals," Lee told them mock-sternly.

"No argument here." Clementine agreed.

Pepper jumped off of Sarah's lap and went upstairs. They decided to turn on the TV and watch something for a while.

At one point, the house phone rang and Lee answered it. Carlos spoke on the other end.

_"Hello Lee."_ Carlos greeted. _"I just phoned in to check how things are? Is Sarah okay?"_

"Things are going fine, and Sarah's behaving herself well," Lee responded. "Clementine came over a bit earlier."

_"Oh, okay."_ Carlos nodded and seemed satisfied with that. _"I have to go back to work now. I'll be home at four. Goodbye."_

"Bye," said Lee, and he hung up the phone. He turned his attention to the girls, who were engrossed on the television.

They were watching a show called Friends which Lee had watched before. The three of them sat back and watched away.

"Flashback episodes are really cool," said Sarah. "I like finding out what's happened before."

"Me, too." Clementine agreed, her eyes glued to the TV.

Things were mostly quiet until Clementine was called to go home at around one-fifteen; she had to run errands with her parents.

"I'll see you guys later." Clementine bade them goodbye as she opened the front door and stepped outside. "Bye."

"Bye, Clementine," Sarah waved with a smile.

Nothing else happened in the past two hour or so. When the time was near 4:00 PM, the front door opened and in walked Astrid. Sarah got up and ran over to greet her mother.

"Hi, Mom!" Sarah chirped, giving her mom a hug.

"Hello, sweetie." Astrid greeted as she returned the hug. The two of them proceeded into the room. "Thank you for watching Sarah, Lee."

"No problem," Lee got up, and gave Astrid a light smile.

Astrid gave Lee a few dollars for watching her daughter, even though Lee assured them it was fine, but she still insisted and he eventually gave in and accepted. With that said and done, he left their home and proceeded to go back home.

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><p><strong>That's the end for this chapter, folks. I always wondered how Lee and Sarah would interact in game. Let's face it, Lee would be a better parent than Carlos ever was in a walker apocalypse. I'm just kidding. Stay tuned for the next chapter.<strong>


	20. Chapter 20: second date

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 20: second date  
><strong>

**Yo, what's up, Walking Dead readers. We're back to deliver you another chapter for our story. We would also appreciate some feedback from you guys so we know that you're enjoying the story if it's not too much trouble, thanks. While you guys and gals read, I'm going to sleep for a while because I'm tired. Ciao.**

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><p>Once Lee arrived home, he decided to give Carley a call, since she was probably home from work right about now.<p>

He dialed her cellphone and almost immediately, she picked up. _"Hey Lee, I'm just on my way home from work."_

"Guess I called you at the right time," Lee noted.

_"Yep."_ Carley nodded. _"My crew's dropping me off. So, what's up?"_

"I just got home from watching Sarah, don't really have anything planned," Lee responded. "So I was wondering, uhh..."

_"You're wondering if you and I want to go out somewhere?"_ Carley finished for him, smirking on the other end of the line.

"Yeah," Lee scratched the back of his head. "I mean, only if you want to."

_"Of course."_ Carley nodded. _"When I get home, I'll get changed and come and meet you and your house. Sound good?"_

"Sounds good," Lee responded. "See you soon, Carley. Bye."

_"See you, Lee."_ Carley bade him goodbye and hung up on the phone.

Now that was over, Lee had to find something and somewhere for them to go to. Going to a restaurant again was a little boring. What could they do?

He decided to look at his newspaper that was probably delivered to him while he was at the Hidalgos'. He looked through it and noticed that there were some decent-looking movies at the theater tonight. It might not be such a bad idea.

Whilst he waited, he decided to go ahead and get ready now. After having a shower, he simply put some some causal clothes and tided his beard down.

Exactly twenty-five minutes later, the doorbell rang. Lee had just finished up tying his shoes, and went to open it. Carley stood on the other side, wearing a casual sleeveless purple shirt and jeans.

"Hey," Lee greeted.

"Hey." Carley greeted, leaning up to share a quick kiss with him. "Shall we get going?"

"Ready when you are," Lee answered. He closed the front door and locked it behind him. Like a gentleman, he opened the passenger side door for Carley, who thanked him. He got around to the driver's seat and started the car.

"So where are we going, or do you want to surprise me?" Carley inquired as she placed her seat belt around her shoulder.

"Seeing a movie okay with you?" Lee wanted to know. "It's only about ten miles away."

"Sounds good to me." Carley agreed as she leaned back and enjoyed the ride. "What are we watching?"

"Hercules. Kenny told me it was good."

"I look forward to watching it." Carley replied.

It did not take that long until they got to the movie theaters. After parking in the car park, Lee and Carley held hands as they walked inside the theater and went to go and buy a ticket.

"That'll be $10.25," the man at the ticket booth ordered. Lee took out his wallet and gave him the money that Astrid had paid him. "Enjoy the film."

They walked inside, debating on whether or not to buy some popcorn.

"Hey Lee." Carley whispered and made sure no-one was looking. She revealed she brought some small snacks in her purse. "Look what I got."

She opened up to show some small boxes of candy, which Lee raised his eyebrows with a smirk.

"Never knew you to be a rebel," he teased lightheartedly.

"Well, you can't always follow the rules." Carley replied with a grin as they walked inside the theater room.

Luckily, there weren't that many people there, so they took a seat around the middle where it was probably the best view. The previews began, with Lee and Carley (quietly) pointing out what movies looked interesting and what ones didn't.

"I've always wanted to see the new James Bond movie." Carley whispered.

Lee arched an eyebrow. That movie came out a while ago but he didn't say anything about it. Oh well. Maybe just a mistake the theater workers made, but it was no big deal.

"Too bad we got to wait until December to see the final part of the Hobbit," Lee whispered.

"Oh, tell me about it." Carley agreed after she took a quiet bite of one of her snacks.

Some minutes later, the movie began. Carley opened one of the candy boxes and held it out to Lee.

They two shared their snacks and ate quietly as the movie started. At one point, Carley leaned her head down against Lee's shoulder, and he in return placed his arm around her.

For now, the two decided to keep this a secret...for now, at least. Clementine and Sarah both seemed to know about it, but not that much. They just decided to enjoy the movie, staying in that position the entire time.

At one point, some guy starting screaming at the movie, ruining their peace. But luckily security arrived and escorted him out.

"Damn..." Lee muttered, shaking his head and popping a few jelly beans into his mouth. It almost reminded him of Larry. But he wouldn't let that ruin his date.

"People nowadays." Carley sighed, taking a bite out of her candy bar.

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><p>After some time, the movie ended. Both Lee and Carley thought it was okay overall, not the best but not terrible. They walked out of the theater, arm in arm.<p>

"Kenny was right, that was a good movie." Carley spoke up as they walked through the parking lot.

"It wasn't bad," Lee agreed as he opened the passenger door for Carley. "I'll be sure to tell him tomorrow."

Carley nodded and stepped inside the passenger seat, appreciating Lee being a gentlemen to her.

"You don't mind if we go for a drive, right?" he asked. He thought that a peaceful drive wouldn't be bad either.

"I don't mind." Carley answered as she placed her seat belt on a second time.

They took a drive through downtown, and then through a couple of neighborhoods. Lee actually felt good since there were still some parts of Atlanta that he had yet to check out. He had seen these parts while watching the news/WABE.

"Isn't that the diner Sarita owns?" Carley asked Lee when the car stopped at a red light.

"Yeah. Didn't know you knew her," Lee responded. "Real nice lady."

"I've been in there a few times, but yeah, she's nice." Carley inquired, a second later, the lights went green and Lee began driving through the town again.

They pointed out a couple of places, such as the store where Jane worked and Luke and Nick's pawn shop. Lee hoped that things would turn around for the boys' business.

After cruising for a while, Lee drove back to their neighborhood and parked outside Carley's home.

"Thanks for another good time, Lee." Carley thanked as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't mention it, Car. Call me tomorrow?" Lee suggested.

Carley nodded and got out of the car. Lee watched and made sure she entered the house okay before driving home for the night. It was about 9:30 PM.

It had been a perfect night (with the exception of that screaming man) and now all Lee wanted to do was sit back and relax for a while.

He brought his laptop over to the couch and checked on some of his social media, and watched some YouTube videos.

Nothing much happened today, except there was a video called Five Nights At Freddy's 2 that seemed to be the famous video at the moment.

Lee had heard of this game but never played it. Doug, the occasional video game player, had told him that the first game had been one of the freakiest that he'd played in quite awhile.

He would have to go around Doug's one time to see what was so scary about it. All it was were robots in costumes, why was that scary?

Not to mention that it was from a kids' pizza place. He'd have to give Doug a ring tomorrow.

"Watching the trailer won't hurt, right?" Lee asked himself, clicking on a YouTube video.

According to the trailer, the objective of the game was to prevent the animantronics from reaching you, and this time, the game had no doors to stop them.

Too bad Lee wasn't convinced that the same was at all scary. He put his laptop away for the night but didn't feel like going to bed just yet.

He decided to turn on the TV and see if anything was on tonight, but nothing good was on at this time. All he could find was some was some old shows. He decided to select the show called That 70's show.

It was the episode where the group of friends went camping. Lee couldn't help but laugh out loud when Eric got stuck in the thorn bush, hijacking any chance of scaring his friends during a ghost story.

He debated on what to do tomorrow. Maybe he could go to the library and get some new books, perhaps check out that book Sarah had told him about earlier.

He still had quite some summer time to kill. But then he remembered Ed mentioning that he, Clementine, Diana, Kenny, Duck and Katjaa were going bike riding and they offered him if he wanted to come. He told them he'd think about it.

It didn't sound like a bad idea, although Lee wasn't that athletic. He stayed up for another hour or so before finally heading to bed.

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><p><strong>That does it for this chapter, ladies and gentlemen. Another Lee and Carley chapter. I know the chapter was a little short, but don't worry because more chapters are coming soon.<strong>


	21. Chapter 21: visit to Doug's

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 21: visit to Doug's**

**Hey everyone, what's up? We appreciate the feedback from the other day and glad to know that you're enjoying the story still. After all, it's all about pleasing you guys as you are our readers. Here's chapter 21, enjoy reading.**

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><p>Lee woke up the next morning when he heard the sound of hammering that woke him up, but he didn't care that much when he looked at the time to see it was 10:50 AM. He got up and looked out his bathroom window to see Ed was on his roof, hammering down some tiles.<p>

He got dressed for the day and fixed himself up, then went outside to greet his neighbor. "Mornin', Ed!"

Ed almost lost his balance and fell down, but he quickly regained control. "Morning Lee."

"Problem on your roof?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, tiles came lose." Ed explained as he grabbed his hammer.

Clementine exited her house then, with nails that were presumably for her father. She waved at Lee, who waved back.

"Here dad." Clementine told her father as she climbed the ladder and handed him the nails before climbing back down.

Lee went back inside his house, still thinking about going bike riding with his friends. Kenny told him that they would be going at 2:00 PM.

After thinking hard whilst eating his breakfast, he decided that he would go along with them. Exercise was good for the body after all.

He finished his breakfast and ran the dishwasher, and decided to give Doug that call about the game. He dialed Doug's number and the technology man picked up. _"Hey Lee."_

"Hey, Doug. I was just calling to let you know something. You know that game you mentioned, Five Nights at Freddy's? It really isn't scary, from what I saw on the trailer." Lee admitted.

_"Not scary?!"_ Doug replied in a somewhat loud tone._ "Dude, you got to come over here right now!"_

Lee raised his eyebrows. Doug wanted a challenge, all right. "Guess I'll be there shortly."

_"Great, I'll go and get my gaming computer ready."_ Doug said as he dropped the phone without hanging up, and Lee could hear a lot of rattling noise in the background.

Lee grabbed his keys and made his way to Doug's house. He lived next door to Omid and Christa.

He knocked on the door and a few seconds later, Doug opened the door with wires around his shoulder. "Hey Lee, come on in."

Doug had a rather amused look on his face, as if ready to see Lee's reaction. He led the other man to his computer room, which, needless to say, was hooked up with lots of equipment.

"Take a seat Lee." Doug offered, holding his computer seat back for the older man to sit down in. "Now the game's simple, but instead, I'll let you figure it out on your own. Make sure you pay attention to phone guy. I'm going to go and sit over here."

Lee nodded, so very ready to prove Doug wrong. He set the game up and waited for it to load.

The game started and it opened up with the next "12:00 AM, Night 1". He moved the mouse around on the game whilst the phone in the game was talking and giving the player advice.

"Hmm..." Lee trailed off. He had to admit that these faces were kind of freaky, but not scary. Just for good measure, he decided to close the doors. But little did know is that he had a power limit, and before long, the power went out. The animatronic named Freddy appeared in the dark and began playing a song.

Without warning, the Freddy robot began to scream, giving Lee a mini heart attack and causing him to nearly fall out of his chair. Nearby, Doug was laughing his ass off.

"Not scary, huh, Lee?" Doug said in between laughs.

"Shut up, Doug," Lee responded, but he was trying to hide a smile.

"I can't wait for the sequel to be released." Doug replied as Lee exited the game.

"Oh?" Lee questioned. "When's that supposed to be released?"

"Somewhere next year." Doug answered as the two left his technical room and took a seat in the living room.

It wasn't often that Lee came to visit Doug, but it felt nice once in a while.

"So, any new projects?" Lee inquired.

"Yep, I've been working on a server project." Doug answered whilst he went on and on into the details. "I'm being flied out to Singapore soon to help upgrade their serves there."

"Really? Well, good luck," Lee commented. "I'm going biking with Ed and Kenny and their families later."

"That sounds like fun." Doug agreed with a nod. "Never thought you were the top to go bike riding. No offence or anything."

"Yeah, yeah," Lee rolled his eyes.

"So, how are your family?" Doug asked as he grabbed his soda on the table and took a sip.

"They're fine, I called them a couple of days ago," said Lee. "Business is good too."

"That's good." Doug nodded before taking another sip out of that energy drink. No wonder this guy was putting on a couple of pounds.

After a few awkward minutes, Lee decided to head out. "Catch you later, Doug."

"See ya later, Lee." Doug waved before heading back into his room where his computer was.

Lee headed home and decided to stay until it was time to go. But first he had to let Ed and Kenny know that he was coming along. He decided to go and down that now since Ed was still on the roof of his home.

Ed noticed him and climbed down the ladder.

"Hey, Ed. About that offer to go bike riding with you guys, it's not too late to take it up, is it?"

"Of course not." Ed assured as he picked up the ladder and carried it across his shoulder. "We still have an extra bike in our shed, that's if you don't have your own?"

"I have one in my garage, but I don't use it much," Lee answered. "I'll get it ready though. We still on for 2?"

"Yep." Ed nodded. "We're taking our car and Kenny and his family are taking theirs. You can ride with us if you want, it will save you from taking your car just to carry your bike."

"Thanks, man," Lee answered. "See you then." He turned around and walked into his home.

Lee walked into his back garden and opened up his shed and pulled out his bicycle that he had not ridden for quite some time. Hopefully he didn't get too big for it over the past year. And aside from that, he noticed a small spider sitting on the seat, but he didn't mind. He picked it up and let it go in the garden. His brother on the other hand was traumatized of them.

He couldn't help but snicker at all of the spider pranks he would pull on Blake when they were kids. But aside from that, he got out his bike and prepped it for leaving. He also found his helmet on top of the washing machine.

Since it was a little while until they were leaving, he decided to go back next door and see if Ed needed any help with anything.

Ed was carrying some new roof tiles, and Lee approached him. "Hey, Ed. You, uh, need any help?"

"If it's no trouble, then yeah, thanks Lee." Ed answered as he set the ladder against the roof in his back yard and climbed up.

Ed called for Lee to hand him some of the tiles, which the latter did without hesitation. It took about two minutes each. Clementine came outside a couple minutes later, asking if either man wanted a drink.

"I'm fine, Clem. Thanks, though," Lee gave her a smile.

"Just some orange juice for me please, Clem." Ed requested as he hammered down some tiles.

Clementine nodded and walked back into her home, a moment later, she returned with a glass of orange juice and left on the table.

"Thanks honey." Ed thanked.

Clementine walked back inside to help Diana with the indoor chores while Ed and Lee continued to fix the roof up. About thirty minutes later, they got done. Ed climbed down from the ladder.

"Thanks for the help, Lee, I appreciate it." Ed thanked as he looked at this watch to see it was 12:10 PM.

"No problem, Ed. See you at two?" Lee inquired.

"Yep, we'll see you then." Ed nodded as he went back inside his home to help out his family.

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><p><strong><em>Five Night's at Freddy's<em>, very scary game. I got the third game just the other day and completed it, but not without jumping out my seat once or twice. Stay tuned for the next chapter, folks.**


	22. Chapter 22: bicycle ride

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 22: bicycle ride**

**Hey, what's up, everyone? Another chapter for you guys and gals here today. Friday; everybody's REAL favorite day of the week and what better to enjoy your weekend than a good-old chapter from your good-old friends Assassin and Writer. Enjoy reading.**

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><p>Lee walked into his own house, suddenly motivated to do some chores. To pass the time, he washed his downstairs windows and cleaned the kitchen, something he'd been putting off for a little while.<p>

And at one point, he decided just to clean everything he could find dirty and tided up his home a little. He wasn't beginning to keep a perfect house clean like the Hidalgo family, was he?

Once Lee was all done, he sat down on the couch and looked at his TV, seeing that it was already 1:30 PM. He would have to meet his friends in exactly half an hour.

Nothing good was on TV today so he just flipped the channel onto a game show and decided to sit back and watch whilst seeing if he knew the answers as well.

He was in luck, because one of the categories was on world history. He seemed to get about 75% of the answers correct, and before he know it, his phone beeped.

_"Hey, man, ready when you are."_ The message was from Kenny.

Lee text back that he was on his way and proceeded to go and fetch his bike and bring it in front of Ed and Diana's home. Everyone was all ready packed and ready to go. He was going to be riding with Ed, Diana and Clementine.

"Hey Lee, glad you're tagging along." Ed greeted as he took Lee's bike and went to go and attach it to the car.

Lee sat with Clementine in the backseat. He could see Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck riding behind them in their truck.

"So, we going to a park or something?" Lee inquired.

"Actually, we were going somewhere near the country side." Ed answered as he got into the driving seat and started the engine. "We thought a nice ride through there would be great. Sound good to you?"

"Sounds good to me," Lee confirmed with a short nod.

"Well, let's sit back and enjoy the ride." Ed stated as they pulled out of the driveway and drove through their neighborhood, Kenny following behind them.

* * *

><p>It took about forty-five minutes (mostly listening to a Rolling Stones album) but finally they all made it safely to a bike trail by the countryside, just outside of Atlanta. Everyone got out of their vehicles and unlatched their bikes.<p>

"Who wants to lead the way?" Clementine asked everyone was she left her hat in the car and placed on her bicycle helmet.

No one said anything for a minute, but soon Kenny spoke up. "Guess I will," he responded.

"Duck, honey, put on your helmet, please," Katjaa asked her son.

Duck obliged and got out his Spiderman helmet out of the truck, placing it on his head and buckling up. Now they were all ready to ride.

Kenny led the way and Katjaa and Duck followed. Ed was behind them, then Diana, then Clementine, and Lee rode right at the back of the group.

They all walked with their bikes until they found a suitable place to start riding, which wasn't far away. Lee couldn't help but admit to himself that this was a lovely scenery.

It was a lovely ride through the country side and Lee could feel his legs beginning to feel like they were building up some muscle which was a good thing.

Duck yelled out then, asking if Clementine wanted to race. She agreed, and both of the children picked up their paces.

"Stay where we can see you both!" Diana called after them.

"We will!" Clementine assured and the two went as fast as they could to see who could get to the end of this path first. Both of them put up a good show, but in the end, Clementine won. "Yeppie."

Duck let out a whine, but he didn't seem too disappointed since he was still smiling.

Kenny caught up to his son quickly. "You did fine, bud. You'll beat her next time."

Clementine gave him a look as if to say, _"Whatever you say."_

"Hey, no matter if you win or lose, it's nice to have fun." Ed added as he and his wife and Lee caught up to them.

"Yeah, this exercise felt pretty nice too," Lee agreed.

"Exercise is good for the body." Ed admitted as he tapped his hand against his stomach where he was getting a little fat.

For awhile longer, the seven of them continued to ride the trail. If only Bonnie had been here, she likely would have been distracted by all the nature. Same with Doug and Astrid and their love for photography.

Doug probably wouldn't get that far anyway as he could not go very fast without getting exhausted, and if Omid was with them, Lee or Kenny would probably be making jokes about him. Last time they saw him on a bike, he was wearing full bicycle gear.

He was going to be a terrific father once the baby arrived. A few minutes later, the group placed their bikes on a lock and decided to take a walk through another trail.

"Phew, I'm exhausted." Ed panted before taking a big sip of a bottle water.

"Me too," Kenny agreed as he and Katjaa took a seat on a wooden bench. Duck on the other hand was still jumping up and down excitedly. Lee wondered how a single person could hold that much energy.

"And a good thing I packed us all some food." Ed replied as he opened up his backpack and pulled out some sandwiches he made.

Kenny and Katjaa did the same too.

So the seven of them sat down (after Duck saw the sandwiches) and ate their late lunch, taking in the day. It actually wasn't scorching hot out today, and the weather was perfect.

"This are some good sandwiches, Dad." Clementine complimented after she took a bite of her own.

"Thank you, Clem." Ed smiled.

Lee took a bite of his turkey and cheese sandwich and looked around the trail. That is, until Duck started chatting it up with him.

"Hey Lee, how awesome is that trail?" Duck asked him. "It's really long and cool!"

"It is, isn't it?" Lee agreed, giving the young boy a smile. He grinned right back. "And don't worry, you can beat Clementine one day."

Clementine heard that and turned to Lee, smirking and raising her eyebrows.

"We'll see about that." Clementine grinned. "I think even I could beat you in a race, Lee."

At that, Lee crossed his own smirk. "Oh, really?" he challenged.

"Maybe we should all have a race, back on the bikes," Kenny suggested. "What do y'all think?"

"Yeah!" Duck nodded.

"I'm good with that." Ed agreed.

"Oh, no prob-lame-o." Clementine replied with a smirk as she folded her arms together.

Katjaa and Diana looked at one another, before they both eventually agreed. They decided to settled their stomachs so that no one would get sick, and once they did, everyone got back on their bicycles.

"Okay, everyone," Lee announced. "Ready...set...G-"

But he was interrupted when everyone whizzed by him, leaving him stunned. Lee began to pedal along, calling out, "That's not fair!"

Clementine laughed as she peddled as fast as her legs would go, but so far, Kenny was in the lead and Duck was in second.

Duck pedaled faster and eventually got ahead of his father, and took the lead...for now, at least. Lee passed Katjaa almost immediately, and was now side-by-side with Clementine.

"I'll see you at the end, Clem!" he said to her.

"Yeah, the end of you becoming last!" Clementine shot back as she peddled harder to gain some distance between them.

"Hey!" Lee called in an amused tone, and picked up some speed. They were all lucky to have no one else on the trail today.

They got near the end and Lee and Clementine were still right next to each other. However as Clementine picked up the pace a little, her bike had suddenly lost balance, and before she knew it, she and the bike went crashing down onto the ground. Lee immediately hit the brake and ran over to her aid.

"Are you alright?" Lee asked worriedly. Everyone else stopped their bikes to see what would happen.

Clementine leaned up and rubbed the back of her head. Her clothes had got dirty but other than that, she looked fine. "I'm okay."

Lee held out his hand for her to take, and she accepted, brushing herself off.

"You sure, sweetie?" Diana questioned, walking a little forward.

"I'm okay, Mom, really." Clementine reassured as she picked up her bike and sat back down on it. For a little girl, she seemed really calm and didn't cry or anything.

Kenny glanced over at his son before announcing to everyone: "Okay, maybe we shouldn't race."

"Lee got the furthest, so we'll say he won hat one by default." Clementine spoke up with a smile. Lee nodded and gently patted her back a couple of times.

"We better get back," Lee added as he got back on his bike. It was a much slower ride now, but it was fun while it lasted.

It did not take them long to get back to the cars and everyone took of their biking helmets and placed their bikes back onto their vehicles.

"That was a fun day." Ed spoke up as he placed his bike onto the back of his car.

"Thanks for inviting me, I had a nice time," Lee responded.

"Us too," Kenny added as he opened the car door for Katjaa.

"No problem, guys, we should do some more stuff like this again sometime." Ed told everyone as Diana and Clementine got into the car whilst Lee drank his remaining water out of his bottle.

He threw the bottle into the nearby recycle bin and climbed in next to Clementine. Her clothes were a bit dirty, but other than that she appeared to be fine.

"I need a bath when we got home." Clementine spoke up as she picked up her hat and placed it back onto her head.

"We'll be home in an hour, Clem," Diana told her as she rummaged through her purse. Ed started up the car, and they drove on home.

"Today was fun." Clementine spoke up whilst she leaned back and enjoyed the ride. "Well, except for me falling over."

"Well, we're glad you're okay," Lee nodded. He looked out the window at all of the large fields. This time, they were riding behind Kenny and his family.

"Our Clementine is a tough little girl." Ed said with a smile as he followed Kenny's truck down the road.

Clementine smiled at the praise, and folded her arms together.

At one point during the ride Duck stuck his head out the window and waved, but one of his parents probably told him to get back inside, because he disappeared a couple of moments later.

The family of three and Lee laughed slightly in response. Duck was always full of energy despite the situations. They couldn't imagine what he'd be like in a zombie apocalypse.

That became their next topic of choice. Clementine first asked what everyone's weapon of choice would be in a zombie apocalypse.

"I'm...not really sure," Lee shrugged. "What do you think, Clem?"

"Um, depends. Am I in combat or am I using a gun?" Clementine asked.

"I'd use a sword any day." Ed chuckled.

"I'd have to say a knife," Diana spoke up.

* * *

><p>Before they knew it, they were approaching their neighborhood. It was nearly 5:30 PM and dusk out. Lee climbed out of the family car and thanked them one last time, waving to Kenny who had just pulled into his own driveway. He took his bike off of the car and helped Ed with the rest before going home.<p>

He was too exhausted to move after bike riding all day and collapsed onto his couch, spreading out his arms and leg lazily.

Lee stared up at the ceiling, thinking about his days. There was still about two months before he had to head back to the university.

Still, what could he do in that time, maybe get a temporarily job somewhere? Go on another vacation? He was not so sure.

He would figure it out tomorrow. Right now, he just decided to watch a little television.

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><p><strong>That's the end of this chapter, folks. Lee and his friends went bike riding for the day, Clementine had a little accident, but she appears to be fine with no injury. Stay tuned for the next chapter.<strong>


	23. Chapter 23: dinner at Carley's

**A fresh start**

**Chapter 23: dinner at Carley's  
><strong>

**Hey, what's up, everyone, we're back with another chapter. A little longer of a wait than usual, but here's the next chapter. Nothing much to say on this chapter, other than enjoy.**

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><p>Lee switched on another TV quiz show and decided to see how good his knowledge was again.<p>

This time the questions were on musical instruments and certain celebrities from the 1970's. Odd combination, but Lee was confident that he could get at least some answers correct.

He called out to the TV with his answer as if they could hear him.

Too bad he was wrong when it came to most of the instrument questions. And it was ironic since his mother played the tuba.

Next were history questions and his eyes widened. No way could he get any of these wrong.

_"Next question: who was the inventor of electricity?"_

That was too easy, Benjamin Franklin seemed to discover it, yes, but it was Thales from much earlier times who was the first to research into it.

And it turns out the answer was Benjamin Franklin.

"Really?" Lee asked himself. Maybe they weren't looking that far back.

_"Next question."_ the host of the TV show spoke up. _"What year did the American revolutionary war begin?_

"1775!" Lee called with a smirk. This time he was correct.

Who ever thought he'd be that good at a show? Maybe he and Omid should go on sometime, and bring people who might know the other answers to the other subjects.

He thought about calling Omid and suggesting it. His baby would have a somewhat famous father if he ended up winning.

But that was for another day, for now, he decided to sit back and enjoy the rest of the show.

It ended at 6:30 PM and then there was nothing on again. Lee looked at his Wii and remembered the night he and Clementine had that intense Mario Kart battle. He smiled, that was a great night.

Maybe he could play it with Carley some time, but then again, he was unsure if she was the type of person who enjoyed playing video games. But he also thought he'd never have a shot with her, so why not? Next time she was around his home, he'd ask.

It was a bit more fun to play with others than alone. But for now, Lee decided to play one of his shooting games, although he wasn't an avid video gamer.

He tried shooting the enemies on the game, but he got shot constantly.

"Doug would probably be laughing at me right now," Lee told himself.

He still needed to get Doug back for scaring him with that game, but how he was going to do that was a mystery.

He wanted to called Blake for his help, since he was great at pranks, but not at this time.

He would seek his revenge for another time, for now, he decided to go and give Carley a call for a while since he was bored.

Lee put his game away and dialed Carley's number. Since she was usually by her phone when she wasn't working, she answered on the second ring.

_"Hello?"_ Carley greeted on the other end.

"Hey, Carley," Lee returned the greeted.

_"Hey Lee."_ Carley replied. _"How are you doing? Kenny told me you went bike riding with his family and Ed's family today."_

"I'm doing okay," Lee responded. "Yeah, we went to the countryside, rode the trail. How are you?"

_"I'm good, thanks."_ Carley replied. _"I got back from work a little while ago and then I went to Omid and Christa's for a while. I just got back home around ten minutes ago."_

"Ah, cool," Lee answered. "I take it Omid still wants the baby to be named Omid Junior?" He smirked.

_"Actually, they're both discussing baby names when I was there."_ Carley responded. _"At the moment, they were thinking of naming their baby either Jack or Abilene."_

"Nice names," Lee commented. "So, what are you up to at home? Anything?"

_"Just cooking my dinner and watching some TV."_ Carley answered.

"Oh. I'm watching some game shows, Omid and I would do great on it." Lee replied.

_"Really?"_ Carley smirked.

"Yup. A lot of history questions. I still remember the other day when his cat was on TV," Lee recalled.

_"His cat was on the TV?"_ Carley repeated, arching a curious eyebrow.

"Yeah, I think the show was called Funniest Fails? They can tell you all about it." Lee couldn't help but laugh.

_"I got to find that footage."_ Carley admitted with a smile. But now she decided to change the subject. _"So, you up to anything now?"_

"Not really," Lee shook his head although he was unseen. "I've been thinking about something to do. I don't go back to work for two months."

_"Want to come over for a while?"_ Carley offered.

"Sure, why not?" Lee nodded. It wasn't a bad idea, his house usually felt empty at night. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

_"See you then."_ Carley nodded before she hung up the phone.

Lee shut off his TV and grabbed his keys, locking the door behind him as he left. The sun was just beginning to go down for another day.

He walked a few houses down to Carley's home and knocked on the door lightly. A few seconds later, Carley opened the door with a smile. "Hey Lee. Come on in."

Lee walked inside, and Carley closed the door behind her. She offered him to have a seat in the living room.

"Glad you came over, I was just making dinner." Carley greeted as she went into the kitchen. "I got extra, you want some meat loaf?"

"Sounds good," said Lee. Meatloaf wasn't exactly his favorite, but that didn't mean he didn't like it.

"Should be done soon." Carley called out from the kitchen.

"You sure you don't need any help?" Lee offered.

"I'm sure, it's almost done." Carley assured. "Just make yourself at home until then."

Lee nodded and went to sit out in the living room until dinner was ready. It was funny how Carley couldn't keep her place completely spotless more than once, because once again it was a bit messy. But not too bad. A few minutes later, Carley called Lee into the kitchen.

"Dinners ready!" Carley announced as she placed both plates of dinners onto the table and took a seat.

Lee got up and went to the kitchen where Carley was waiting. Along with the meatloaf was rice and mixed vegetables.

"Looks good," the man commented.

"Thanks." Carley thanked and waited until Lee sat down before the two dug into their meal. Along the way, they decided to make conversation. "You eat meatloaf often?"

"Not really, every once in a while," Lee responded as he began to cut it. "It's good though. What about you?"

"I eat anything really." Carley responded after she took a sip of water.

"You don't seem picky anyway," Lee shrugged as he ate some white rice. "You're a good cook."

"Think so?" Carley smiled at the compliment as she dropped some salt onto her dinner.

"I do," Lee assured her.

"Thanks Lee. When I was younger, I somehow burned a boiled egg." Carley chuckled.

Lee couldn't help but laugh. "Don't feel bad, my dad burns water." The two shared a snicker, and then Lee cleared his throat. "So...Doug proved me wrong on some game today. Want to help me get him back?"

"Let me guess: Five Nights at Freddy's?" Carley assumed.

"I have a feeling he told you?"

With a smirk, Carley pulled out her cell phone and showed who the text from Doug was sent to: About half of the neighborhood. Lee was surprised that no one had called him about it.

"Don't feel bad, we'll get him back." Carley assured as she placed her cell phone back into her pocket.

"So, you want to help?" Lee inquired as he ate a forkful of vegetables.

"Sure, I could do with a laugh." Carley agreed.

This was going to be fun, Lee could already tell. As long as they didn't go too far.

"Now he can we get Doug back?" Carley wondered, taking a bite out of her rice.

"Not sure yet," Lee shrugged. "I'm not that great at pranks, y'know? But I want to keep it harmless."

"Well, we'll figure out soon." Carley replied, but she decided to change the subject for now. "So, other than the bike ride, done anything interesting today?"

"I helped Ed with his roof tiles, but that's about it," Lee responded. "What have you been up to this week? Any new stories?"

"Yeah, some guy went crazy at McDonald's because they wouldn't serve him fries." Carley answered with a slight laugh. "He came during breakfast time."

"Wow," Lee laughed along with her. "I remember the story where a guy called the police because he didn't get his hash browns. I mean, they're pretty good, but damn."

"People nowadays." Carley sighed after her laughter died down.

"Right?" Lee agreed. "So, uh, I had a good time last night."

"Me, too, except for that screaming at one point." Carley recalled with a slightly annoyed face.

"Grown men are the last you would expect to act like a damn three-year-old," Lee rolled his eyes. "But still, I didn't let that ruin the night."

"Me, too. It was a fun and it was a great movie." Carley replied with a small smile.

Before long, the two finished their meals and proceeded to wash the dishes. After that was done, the two went to go and sit in Carley's living room for a while.

Lee was beginning to enjoy these visits with Carley more every time. He still wanted to take it slow, so he still wanted to wait until he told her how he felt.

"So, you ever watched That 70's show?" Carley inquired as she turned the channel over to the mentioned show.

"Watched it last night, it was the camping episode," Lee confirmed.

"That's one of my favorite episodes." Carley nodded. "I love this show."

"What episode is this, I don't think I've seen it?" Lee wanted to know.

"It's where Eric and Donna break up." Carley answered.

"Oh..." Lee trailed off. Carley seemed to be more into drama than he was.

"Yeah, sad episode." Carley admitted as she sat back against her couch with her hands in her lap

Eventually, the episode ended (turned out to be the season finale as well), and Lee let out an awkward sigh. "Well...that was...depressing."

"I know, right?" Carley agreed. "I don't know what's worse: the ending to this or Friends."

"That's another one of my favorites," Lee commented.

"Who's your favorite character? Mine's Joey." Carley asked.

"Really? Mine too," Lee responded.

"What about your favorite episode?" Carley asked a second question.

"I really liked the prom one, the thing with Fat Monica was pretty funny," Lee admitted.

"Ha-ha, yeah." Carley laughed for a few seconds. "I think my favorite is when Joey gets his head stuck in a turkey."

"Those Thanksgiving specials, though," Lee couldn't help but snicker himself.

"Yep." Carley nodded.

* * *

><p>For the next little while, the two continued watching shows together until Lee checked the time and decided it was best that he had back home now. He and Carley walked towards the front door and shared a quick kiss.<p>

"So, uh, see you later?" Lee asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Yep, see you later, Lee." Carley bade him goodbye and waved.

Lee walked out of the house and made his way back to his home. It was dark out now, but it was a quiet night, not that he minded. Once he arrived home, he unlocked the door and stepped inside, taking a seat at his kitchen bar where his laptop was.

He decided to have a quick look on the news and his emails to see if anything was new, but nothing interesting so far.

Once he got on his Facebook, he noticed an interesting post from Omid to Carlos's wall: _"Uh, dude, don't be mad or anything but I think my cat got yours pregnant."_

Carlos had a reply saying, _"Omid, you better be joking."_

At that very second, another comment appeared. It said: _"Well, is your cat gray?"_

Carlos replied _"Yes, but I haven't seen her leave the house."_

There was a _"..."_ comment, and then: _"Well, I was out looking for Whiskers and I saw him doing some graphic things with your cat in front of your house. They stopped right when I came up, so..."_

That was enough Facebook for today, but Lee made a mental note to ask Omid or Carlos (whoever he saw tomorrow) about the situation. He decided to go to a website called Flapmmo, where you could play multiplayer Flappy Bird. That game raged him to no end, but it was a fun kind of rage. He got on and just simply typed in "Lee" for the username, and got to playing. He ended up dying on the first pipe multiple times.

Eventually, he got that frustrated that he felt like he wanted to throw his laptop, but he controlled himself and simply shut door his machine.

"How the hell does Doug get up to 330?" Lee asked himself.

That was a mystery that he did not want to find out. Instead, he simply decided to head to sleep for the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Ugh, Flappy Bird, why did we bring that In?! Oh well. That's another chapter written by us and published, folks. Stay tuned for the next chapter where we will finally be focusing on other characters for a day.<strong>


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